Full or partial entries of my blogs may be found at LatviansOnline http://latviansonline.com/forum/  + Forum Home + Open Forum – The-Not-Voter. If you copy this blog for your files, or copy to forward, or otherwise mention its content, please credit the author http://esoschronicles.blogspot.com/, http://melnaysjanis.blogspot.com/, or http://the-not-voter.blogspot.com/


I suggest you look at the links imbedded in these blogs or at the end of the blog as an integral part of my argument.
THE-NOT-VOTER
35 The Compromised Latvian Self

In blog 34 this writer discussed how not only was the history of the Latvian people compromised and changed into a fairy tale by the German and Latvian orthodox Christian religions, but how the psyche of the Latvian people was repressed and has ever since suffered from a stunted growth syndrome.

What ought to be the foundation stones of Latvia are unfortunately not widely known and therefore are not discussed. In this bloggers opinion these "unknown" stones speak of the fact that

a) The Latvian community was created with the help of the Herrnhuters (originating in the Moravian Brotherhood);

b) The Herrnhuters accomplished the bringing together of Latvians by introducing choirs and community singing;

c) The practice of democracy was introduced by selecting office holders through the drawing lottery tickets from among qualified participants;

d) The very name of Latvia arises from the Herrnhuter community in Latowice (established 1565), which upon its disassembly by the Lutherans was forced to move on, thus taking the name of Latowice with them to Livonia.

Already in 1585, Possevino, a legate of the Pope, who mediated between the Russians, Poles, and Swedes, referred to Latvians as lotavica.

In short, IF the Herrnhuter community of Latvians had not been repressed by the Lutheran church, and Latvian Herrnhuters had been let evolve as a community free from interference by orthodox Christianity, the character of the Latvian people would have evolved rather differently. It would have been much more comfortable with itself today than it in fact is.

The absence of a Self rooted in real history, rather than its replacement by religious fiction and nationalist myth, prevents many Latvians from seeing themselves as living in a continuum with in-depth roots. The absence of historic depth is unfortunately replaced by a psychic syndrome that visits one who perceives his-her birth as an act of falling out of a wheelbarrow: one blames either the driver or the stone that caused the bump, never one’s self for falling asleep and failing to see the true cause.

To repeat, the true cause of the myopia of the Latvian people--so effectively manipulated by their “democratic” politicians, ethnic prejudice et al,--is to be sought in the suppression of their history.

This is why the accusations of fascism that bedevil the image of Latvians continue to contain an element of truth. While Luther is long dead and his anti-Semitism long forgotten, his prejudice against the Herrnhutians (and in so far it has been adopted by orthodox Lutheranism and other Christian sects) continues to strand the spirit of Latvians in shallow waters.

This is a time of crisis in Latvia and—for reasons stated above—involves to a greater or lesser degree Latvians of all national origins and all political parties. Whatever the outcome of the elections this coming Saturday (October 2), the crisis of Latvian self-consciousness is far from over.

Indeed, one hopes that the crisis of Self continues to gather momentum and forces the government to invite independent historians to do research and reanalyze the history of Livonia whence the Latvians emerged.

This writer hopes that such a reanalysis by historians and cultural anthropologists will place Latvians on a historical stage that has much greater depth and breadth than the present one--the one that has led them to the dead-end of this impoverished day.

Postscript: As most everyone knows, the Latvian media are controlled by political interests and are not independent as they ought to be. It is not surprising therefore that the only media outlet interested in this writer’s point of view has been a Riga Russian newspaper, re Telegraf  Click the translate button if you do not read Russian.

Asterisks & Links of Interest
Compulsory voting in the EU Parliamentary elections
http://www.ceps.eu/files/book/1886.pdf
The abstentionist elephant
http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php/site/article/8783/
On the Meaning of Voting
http://www.strike-the-root.com/92/bylund/bylund1.html
Ground Zero for Thought
http://www.alternet.org/module/printversion/146989
The Trap
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAluyt5_kic
On the Moravian Brotherhood

Full or partial entries of my blogs may be found at LatviansOnline http://latviansonline.com/forum/ + Forum Home + Open Forum – The-Not-Voter. If you copy this blog for your files, or copy to forward, or otherwise mention its content, please credit the author http://esoschronicles.blogspot.com/, http://melnaysjanis.blogspot.com/, or http://the-not-voter.blogspot.com/


I suggest you look at the links imbedded in these blogs or at the end of the blog as an integral part of my argument.

THE-NOT-VOTER
34 The Payans of Latvia

As argued by this writer in another blog, the original pronunciation of the word “pagan” was, most likely, “payan”. While the origin of the word is disputed by scholars, “payan” fits nicely with the Latvian sense of its meaning.

Payan = pa + yan; a prefix + the Latvian name for John, Jahnis. The prefix “pa” precedes many Latvian words, for example, pa-dot (to hand over), pa-skriet (to make a run for it), pa-domāt (to think it over), etc. Rather than say “dot”, “skriet”, or “domāt”, the prefix “pa” softens the act. Like the postfix that endears the noun, [as in “gald-inysh” (dear table), “akment-inysh” (dear stone), “saul-īte” (dear sun), “Jānītis” (dear Johnny)], the prefix “pa-” is more often used in spoken than written language. This is because “pa-” inflects the word with subjective judgement.

An interesting side effect of the inflected word is that it not only enables conversation to progress more easily, because it tends to avoid speech as a command [for example, “dod man” (give me) vs “pa-dod” (half-a-please give me)], but it may also inflect the word with irony, especially if the prefix “pa-” precedes a name. Thus, if we put the prefix “pa-” before Yahn (John), it suggests that somehow something is not right with John or Yahn.

“Pa-yahn”, thus, suggests that John is somehow not fully John, but only half a John, so to speak. Because the consonant J may slip-slide and be pronounced as a G or Dzh, it becomes possible for one pa-yahn to be pronounced as pagan. Because of this tendency toward different pronunciations, once upon a time the name “Jesus”, in order to avoid being pronounced “Gesus” (or Geez) was written “Iasu”, where “Ia” is sure to be pronounced as a Y.

So, what has this to do with NOT-VOTING?

The answer lies in the fact that to fully participate in the act of voting, you must know a little more than nothing about history, and you must know enough of history not to be blindsided by lies about what happened in the past.

For example, did you know that proto-Latvians—those Latvians who made up a “people” before the Latvians made themselves a nation—also knew themselves as The Children of Johns (Jāņu bērni)? This is not to say that Livonia or Livland went without the Letowici [from the Moravian (Herrnhuter) parishes of the Brethren at  Letowic], but that the name of Livonia originates with the Livs and not Latvians. The names Lett or Latvis came in use later, after the Great Northern War (ended 1721, Peace of Nystadt) killed off most of the Livs in Vidzeme, for example, where they were replaced by the Latgalians.

True, this is not the place to write a history book. Nevertheless, it must be pointed out that today the history books of Latvia approximate what actually happened only after 1860 or thereabout. This is one reason why the present government of Latvia is reluctant to allocate funds for a new history book for Latvians, and why the state and church in Latvia are not truly separated, but continue to be intertwined with a reactionary orthodox Christian world view. In short, if a history book of Latvia were to be written today, it would, most likely, be a lie about what happened during the first half of the nineteenth century and earlier.

If you care a whit about the Latvian psyche as it was before a hundred and fifty years and want help the Latvian people to untwist the effects of sad repression that keeps their outlook on the world from developing, cast a NOT-VOTE.

The act of NOT-VOTING consists of going to the voting poll and dropping an empty envelope into the box. All the dire warnings that this is an “evil” act, or sabotage, or lets the Russians or commies come and rule over Latvia are but attempts to pull the wool over the eyes of the Latvian people. Rather, a NOT-VOTE will help the psyche of the Children of Johns free the psyche of Latvians today.
Asterisks & Links of Interest
Compulsory voting in the EU Parliamentary elections
http://www.ceps.eu/files/book/1886.pdf
The abstentionist elephant
http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php/site/article/8783/
On the Meaning of Voting
http://www.strike-the-root.com/92/bylund/bylund1.html
Ground Zero for Thought

http://www.alternet.org/module/printversion/146989
The Trap
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAluyt5_kic

33. Based on Glen Gould’s
“So you want to write a fugue!”

If you sing along, please substitute the words
“write” with “create” or “make”
and “fugue” with “nation”.

Herewith, a song dedicated to Latvia’s leaders:
“So you want to create a nation”:

Latvietis uzdzied Prezidentu:
Tā tad, Jūs velaties radīt valsti?

Guntis Ulmanis: Jā, mēs vēlamies radīt valsti.
VVF: Jā, mēs vēlamies radīt valsti.
Zatlers: Jā, mēs vēlamies radīt valsti.
Visi prezidenti: Jā, mēs patiešām vēlamies radīt valsti.

Otrs latvietis: Tā tad, patiešām Jūs velaties radīt valsti?
Visi: Cik patīkami un jauki ir radīt valsti.
Cik mums tas patīkami un jauki radīt valsti. Utt.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2JFgfc7c70
Photo: Ventspils Tūrisma informācijas centrs

Full or partial entries of my blogs may be found at LatviansOnline http://latviansonline.com/forum/ + Forum Home + Open Forum – The-Not-Voter. If you copy this blog for your files, or copy to forward, or otherwise mention its content, please credit the author http://esoschronicles.blogspot.com/ , http://melnaysjanis.blogspot.com/, or http://the-not-voter.blogspot.com/

I suggest you look at the links imbedded in these blogs or at the end of the blog as an integral part of my argument.

THE-NOT-VOTER
32 The Sacrificial Crisis (2)

Latvia stands before a fork in the road. If it goes to the right, it faces extinction as a community; if it turns left, it may save itself and the world.

At this moment, it appears more likely that Latvia will turn right and die. Why should this be so?

The answer is that the fork signifies coming upon a sacrificial crisis. If the sacrifice is not made, a slow or sudden death is the likely outcome.

In 1991, at the time that the Soviet Union collapsed, Latvia regained its independence through what is referred to as a “singing revolution”. Of course, no one ever gains or regains--except in fairy-tales--
one’s independence by singing—either singly, or as a chorus, or by blowing trumpets. Much more than that is required. A people have to manifest a will to become independent and a willingness to die to bring about their will.

If one becomes a free nation, it is only because the people of the nation make a life-sacrifice. Latvians bore such a sacrifice during and immediately following WW1. However, Latvians bore no such sacrifice upon the invasion or fall of the Soviet Union.

It is the failure of Latvians to bear such a sacrifice (possibly due to circumstances) upon the fall of the Soviet Union that haunts Latvia today, and why Latvians are haunted by a suspicion that though Latvia is a nation, it is a failed nation. This sense of failure is notwithstanding the huge loss of life that Latvians suffered at the time of WW1, WW2, and the great deportations that Latvians suffered at the hands of the Soviets in 1941 and 1949.

The insufferable corruption of government and lack of populist reaction to it is proof of the uncertainty of the people over whether they are in fact capable of maintaining their community.

This is why one may say that Latvians are suffering from a sacrificial crisis today. It also opens space for discussing who will or will not bear the sacrifice.

For a detailed argument of the significance of sacrifice, this writer suggests the works of Professor Rene Girard . Because a detailed familiarity with Gerard’s arguments may be obligatory to politologues, the ordinary citizen (unfortunately limited at this time to he-she who knows English) will find the following Fora.tv (Hudson Institute) interview with the professor (click here) helpful.

To be sure, neither this writer nor anyone else can foretell just how the sacrificial crisis in Latvia may resolve itself. Nevertheless, assuming that the forthcoming election (October 2) will put in office the same clique of elites, the reasons why Latvia is dying as a nation may be even more sharply silhouetted than they are today.
Let us hope that an increased awareness of the crisis their country and community is facing will send Latvians on a journey of discovery of what it takes to create and maintain a community.

If the Latvians meet the challenge, they may discover that from among the last and least, they have moved up and become redeemers, and not only of themselves. To be or not to be that is the question.

Asterisks & Links of Interest
The Trap
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAluyt5_kic

Full or partial entries of my blogs may be found at LatviansOnline http://latviansonline.com/forum/  + Forum Home + Open Forum – The-Not-Voter. If you copy this blog for your files, or copy to forward, or otherwise mention its content, please credit the author http://esoschronicles.blogspot.com/ , http://melnaysjanis.blogspot.com/ , or http://the-not-voter.blogspot.com/  



I suggest you look at the links imbedded in these blogs or at the end of the blog as an integral part of my argument.

THE-NOT-VOTER
31 Brain-lock (1)

Any numbers of Latvians have commented on the lock-the-brain mechanisms that appear to affect the thought processes of Latvians, those living in Latvia and those living abroad as well.

The latest comment comes from Džemma Skulme.  The artist comments that Latvian politicians appear to live in the world of “folk poetry” and that on the whole “A Latvian does not seek, does not analyze who he is. Instead, he assumes a pose.” (Latvietis nemeklē, neanalizē, kas viņš ir. Viņš ieņem pozu.)

A near similar comment comes from the renowned Latvian theatre director Alvis Hermanis. Hermanis—who has studied the Latvian mindset in a cycle of plays that lasted five years—claims the Latvian mindset to be: “naïve as that of the American Indians”. See the magazine "Ir". Of course, Hermanis is speaking of the naiveté of “Indians” in the sense that it permitted them to trust the whites who invaded and then destroyed their native cultures. Hermanis suggests that Latvians who live in the countryside do not yet understand the language of the elites (? liars) of Europe.

My own experience with the Latvian mindset is similar. My forty-six years in the U.S. (I was born in Latvia and lived there until eleven) were made memorable, for no small part, by my need to “flee” the society of Latvian exiles (trimdinieki) in order to be able to think—at least what I believe it means to think freely—and not live according to a set of unwritten rules transmitted in one way or another by then editors of the exile newspaper “Laiks”, the ex-legionnaire organization known as “Daugavas Vanagi”, the Latvian exile church, and a relentless drill in Latvian “folk symbols” at almost any Latvian gathering. In short, the intra-exile rules of Latvians abroad during the last half of the 20th century demanded a) an attitude of extreme Latvian nationalism; b) fear God as if he were Satan; c) the drumbeat that the bond that bound Latvians into a community was the church; d) the insistence that such a fear of God was necessary to maintain an eternal hate of communism; e) that to remain loyal to Latvia meant to remain in a state of mind imagined other than “normal”, i.e., the state of the mind of the West was believed to “abnormal” (dissolute and Godless); f) that the Latvian media was not to communicate any ideas contrary to a-f, and g) etc.

The above list (and it could be longer) comes to mind when listening to the pre-election vapid and “nothin’special” arguments of the political parties presuming themselves to be able to form the next government of Latvia. This lock-brain approach has been described by the Latvian politologue Ivars Ījabs as a process which “step by step leads Latvia to abandon the civilized orbit of Western Europe for a trip that may not have a return ticket”.

Though Alvis Hermanis and Ivars Ījabs statements appear to contradict each other, they are nevertheless part of the critical mind, which for a century and a half (I begin the count at about 1860) has been forced to suffer repression. In other words, the threat to Latvians as a free people does not come from Russia (though I lost eight family members to Soviet deportation), but as Ījabs says: “Indeed, the feared Russia exists rather in the heads of the political elite, where (every head) contains a small kreml [?grinch] and lubyanka [rather than fact]”. See link to Ījabs.

Somewhere in my various blogs, I have mentioned that many Latvians suffer from the Turret’s Syndrome. The most obvious manifestation of this syndrome appears in internet posts, where ad hominem arguments, various forms of insults, open anti-semitism, and other forms of slurs are a common occurrence. While Turret’s Syndrome is a universal marvel in our time, it is a particularly strong involuntary tick-of-speech among Latvians. My own theory is that this is the result of the above mentioned brain-lock, which the unconscious mind, unaware of the causes of the brain-lock, attempts to correct by screaming insults to gain attention. What is gained in reality is, unfortunately, a substitution of insults for a critical mind.

How to be cured of the Turret’s Syndrome?

One answer is to NOT-VOTE in the coming elections. I see a large turnout of a NOT-VOTE as Turret’s Syndrome in reverse. If the NOT-VOTE were to become reality, it would clearly defrock politicians of authority.

However, the closest Latvian variant to NOT-VOTING that is gaining popularity among Latvians (in e-postings) is to suggest participation in the elections, but to drop in the voting box an empty ballot. Herewith, this site accepts the EMPTY BALLOT as a worthy successor to the not-vote. For a full if prejudiced discussion of the pros and cons, click here. Note that the chairman of election reform Valdis Liepins presumes to call an empty ballot (tukša aploksne): "... an evil invitation, one that can be called for only by one who wishes to sabotage the elections". Actually, an EMPTY BALLOT is to express distrust in the Saeima as it is currently constituted, force a rewrite of an outdated Constitution, and, yes, it means to force a corrupt government to face up to the crisis it has created.

See nullification for relevant arguments from the U.S. that may find application in Latvia.

Asterisks & Links of Interest
Compulsory voting in the EU Parliamentary elections
http://www.ceps.eu/files/book/1886.pdf
The abstentionist elephant
http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php/site/article/8783/
Electronic polls
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/10102126.stm
On the Meaning of Voting
http://www.strike-the-root.com/92/bylund/bylund1.html
British Government Attempts to Bracket the Constitution
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/election_2010/8681624.stml
Ground Zero for Thought
http://www.alternet.org/module/printversion/146989
Why Forced Positive Thinking Is A Lot Of Crock?
http://www.alternet.org/story/146940/barbara_ehrenreich%3A_why_forced_positive_thinking_is_a_total_crock?page=2
The Trap
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAluyt5_kic

Full or partial entries of my blogs may be found at LatviansOnline http://latviansonline.com/forum/ + Forum Home + Open Forum – The-Not-Voter. If you copy this blog for your files, or copy to forward, or otherwise mention its content, please credit the author http://esoschronicles.blogspot.com/,  http://melnaysjanis.blogspot.com/ , or http://the-not-voter.blogspot.com/  



I suggest you look at the links imbedded in these blogs or at the end of the blog as an integral part of my argument.

THE-NOT-VOTER
30 Herman’s Opinion

Just a day or two ago, I received the latest installment of pro-Vienotība (pro-Unity) campaign advisory. This time it was concerning the opinions of the internationally famous Latvian theatre director Hermanis, here as reported in the Apollo portal. The entire article may be accessed at the pro-Vienotība (pro-Unity) journal „Ir”, apparently in return for a subscription.

Alvis Hermanis, the renowned director of the New Riga Theatre, opines that the entire political “pool” [actually the Jurmala beach—blogger] has turned yellow from the piss of Latvian politicians swimming in their own. Now that election time is upon us, the politicians are inviting the rest of the public to come into the yellow pool and swim with them.

According to Hermanis: “The educated Latvians will vote for “Vienotība” (Unity), the pensioners will vote for ‘Fatherland’ [i.e., nationalistic parties], whereas the people living in the countryside will vote for those who have turned the swimming pool yellow. The result will be the deconstruction of Latvia as a state.””

Continues Hermanis: “That the majority of Latvians may be called ‘stupid’ (mulķi) was proven when the referendum to dismiss the Saeima [the 100 member parliamentary legislative body of the Latvian government—blogger] did not pass for a lack of sufficient voter participation. In this sense, Latvians have been put in hawk by the majority.”

This blogger takes issue with Alvis Hermanis with regard to only one item (which issue may, however, lead to other issues). This is Hermanis' suggestion that the ‘educated’ Latvians will vote for Vienotība (Unity) and that it is necessarily an educated or smart thing to do, or that the ‘stupid’ people from the countryside have tied the hands of the ‘educated’ ones. As this blogger sees it, it is rather the ‘educated’ Latvians—from whose ranks apparently come most of those who have turned the Gulf of Riga yellow with their piss—who have reneged on any responsibility as far as leadership of the Latvian nation is concerned.

At least the traditional point of view about leadership is that leadership earns its druthers by leading by example. The current vogue of leading is to first stuff one’s pockets with public monies and other public resources, then throw up hands (look, ma, they are empty) and declare themselves helpless. Such helplessness manifests itself in all quarters of government, but is especially noteworthy among the ranks of past and present members of the Saeima, and the ranks of former and current Prime Ministers and Presidents of Latvia.

In short, the leading body of the Latvian government does not lead by example when it comes to the example of self-sacrifice. It must be emphasized that the point being made here is not over sacrifice per se, because the government has no hesitations about sending Latvian soldiers to Afghanistan. The point is that the unselfsacrificers in government offices occupy their offices on the basis of the presumption that the office requires no sacrifice, least of all an actual sacrifice of life or career. What a horrible, barbaric, and vulgar thought! Imagine VVF, and GU (in his new King Lear role), and VZ all moving to live in an abandoned peasant shack (there are many to chose from) in Latgale instead of their posh apartments by the Full of Piss seashore, aka Jurmala?

A large segment of the Latvian public media is also in full support of anti-self-sacrificial government ruling over a ‘stupid’ Latvian public. [Incidentally, if my memory serves right, the Latvian voter was first called “stupid” by a former Latvian Prime Minister now living and playing golf in the State of Florida, USA.] In my previous blog (29), I pointed to the charade knows as “100. pants preses clubs” on Friday evenings on LTV1. This is not to say that LNT’s Monday evening show “Latvia, we hear you” (Latvija mēs tevi dzirdam) led by Haralds Burkovskis, attended by the chairman of the neocapitalist party (PLL) campaign manager, advertiser Stendzenieks, and PLL party chairman Andrejs Ēķis is anything other than pure propaganda...

The question of leadership through the charisma of self-sacrifice is of course not only a Latvian people’s problem. The whole world is suffering today governments entirely lacking charisma. The idea of modern government—introduced by the so-called Age of Enlightenment, that Reason would create and maintain democracy—has fallen apart. The United States of America is the most obvious ruin of Democracy. Suffice to point out its attempt to export “freedom” by means of violence.

Thus, while agreeing with director Alvis Hermanis about the Gulf of Riga being full of the piss of politicians, my question to him as an imaginative director of theatre is: “Can you choreograph a scenario in which a politician turns himself into an object of charisma; or failing to find such a politician, stage a street theatre performance where a group of like-minded ‘stupid’ countryside Latvians come together, and under the eye of television commit seppuku?” Might this not be a way for your intelligence to liberate your fellow countrymen from your curse on them? [Long ago I watched a street theatre group from the U. of Minn. perform anti-nuke theatre on the streets of Boston.] For a “classic” scenario, I can offer “Tiresia’s Revenge”, my interpretation of the Oedipus story at http://esoschronicles.blogspot.com/ , blogs 41-47.

DO NOT FORGET TO GO AND NOT-VOTE! This is to avoid being among the “stupid”. A NOT-VOTE means a vote for change of system; for provoking a crisis that will call forth a Constitutional Assembly to rewrite the Constitution (Satversme); that will most likely institute a four-year long authoritarian government (under the supervision of the EU); etc.

Asterisks & Links of Interest
Compulsory voting in the EU Parliamentary elections
http://www.ceps.eu/files/book/1886.pdf
The abstentionist elephant
http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php/site/article/8783/
Electronic polls
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/10102126.stm
On the Meaning of Voting
http://www.strike-the-root.com/92/bylund/bylund1.html
British Government Attempts to Bracket the Constitution
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/election_2010/8681624.stml
Ground Zero for Thought
http://www.alternet.org/module/printversion/146989
Why Forced Positive Thinking Is A Lot Of Crock?
http://www.alternet.org/story/146940/barbara_ehrenreich%3A_why_forced_positive_thinking_is_a_total_crock?page=2
The Trap
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAluyt5_kic

29½ THE NOT-V0TER


This post in response to a post on LOL by Bruno the Left. It is no doubt difficult to make a response to a theme discussed in blog 28, when 29 is on line. Nevertheless, it is worth a try.

The Wars of Religion (1562-1598) severely tested the concept of government that “une foi, un loi, un roi,” (“one faith, one law, one king”) could any longer hold the kingdom together. One of the rebels against the former hegemony was Martin Luther, who made the Pope his special enemy. Nevertheless, while Luther initially supported a German Peasant Rebellion, he wished them to remain under the tutelage of temporal authorities. When Lutheranism came to the Livonia, it had a priori submitted to the German authorities there. Most of the Lutheran ministers did not speak the native language, not even by the time when Livonia was reached (1729~1736) by Graf Zinzendorf and his Herrnhuter movement. Thus the Herrnhuters were the liberators of the Livonian peasants de facto, that is, they taught them how to read, become politically self-aware. Not surprisingly the peasants became demanding of their rights, which was not an attitude much appreciated by the tsar, the German barons, or the Lutheran preachers.

After the Lutherans had repressed the Herrnhuters (1860), they consolidated their hold on power, even as they had to acknowledge many of the changes brought about by the Herrnhuters. The latter had actually started into motion the national awakening, which soon became a secular and militant movement. It was under the pressure of the secular movement that Lutheran barons admitted Latvian Lutheran ministers to preach to their own. Still, even the Latvian ministers found certain things in the proto-Latvian past with which they prefered not deal with. One such figure was the figure of “John”, a figure of the ancient European forest, who had survived the Crusades in Livonia.

When in 1873 “John” reemerged from the forest by appearing on the cover of the first Latvian book (other than religious) as krivs or vaidelotis, names of the proto-Latvian priest, not only did the Russian tsar have most of the copies of the book burnt, but encouraged the removal of “John” from the stage as a Latvian hero.

Thus, when in 1888, Andrejs Pumpurs, a Latvian poet serving in the tsars army, wrote “Lachplesis” (Jawbreaker of Bears), his book was eagerly received by the tsar and Lutheran preachers alike. Though Lachplesis was a pseudo epic hero promising to rise again from his defeat by the black knight, his introduction definitively allowed the removal of John. A number of cultural muggings followed. Writes Emils Melngailis, Latvian componist and ethnologue: “When in 1900, I published my first collection [of folk poems], which contained exclusively songs of Johns, I followed the practice of the ‘new language’ and replaced the name [of Johns songs] with ‘Ligo songs’. Unfortunately, my new invention has stuck, and Johns Eve and Johns songs are now replaced with ‘Ligo’”. The removal of John was cemented into place by the Latvian leftist poet Rainis in 1905 through his play “Uguns un Nakts” (Fire and Night) by making Lachplesis the sole representative figure of the Latvian hero. John was—for all practical purposes—dead.

Needless to say, the Lutheran church encouraged these perversions of the proto-Latvian character by the “new language”. Indeed, the Lutheran church even managed to become the state sponsored religion—just as it was in Sweden. The vogue today is to separate religion from politics, which is why the Lutherans in Sweden as well as in Latvia are a little laid back. Still, the multitudinous presumptions of the Lutheran archbishop in Riga and the influence of the Swedish Lutheran church in making the anti-drug movement in effect an anti-narcotic movement by excluding “soft” medicinal plants such as marihuana, attempt to reintroduce dogma in the social life-style of their respective peoples.

THE NOT-VOTER believes that the current phase of “religion” in Latvia is part of the problem of this nation. Rather than help the people fight against corruption in government and reintroduce religion as a tool that is helpful in forming a critical mind, it encourages passivity through unhelpful pietism and social dissention by focusing on such issues as a ban on gay rights and lumps marihuana with hard narcotics, even as the latter find increased acceptance elsewhere in the world.

It is possible to think that if the Herrnhuters were still around, they would be encouraging Latvians to NOT-VOTE for government that has become a stain on the spiritual fabric of the nation and which in collaboration with orthodox religious sects disables the radical changes necessary to bring forth a better tomorrow.

Full or partial entries of my blogs may be found at LatviansOnline http://latviansonline.com/forum  + Forum Home + Open Forum – The-Not-Voter. If you copy this blog for your files, or copy to forward, or otherwise mention its content, please credit the author http://esoschronicles.blogspot.com/ , http://melnaysjanis.blogspot.com/, or http://the-not-voter.blogspot.com/ 


I suggest you look at the links imbedded in these blogs or at the end of the blog as an integral part of my argument.


THE-NOT-VOTER
29 Latvia Left For Dead

Last Friday evening I took yet another excursion into the Latvian Kingdom of Boredom on the Air Waves.

Not that reaching Boredom was my intent. “100. pants preses klubs” (The Press Club of the 100th Commandment), led by Mareks Gailitis, the news director of LTV1, announced in a pre-show on-air blurb that his guest will be Ainārs Šlesers, the vice-major of Riga, the same who has often been portrayed as the “bulldozer” of Latvian politics.

Granted, the only “bulldozing” Mr. Shlesers ever does is drive his tractor back and forth over a pile of rubbish of nothin’ special, then jump out of the caboose, and goes home reciting rubishy poetry for the ears of the Latvian electorate. Such a precedent does not encourage one to listen to “the buldozer” again.

Even so, this listener and viewer, though not a die-hard optimist, always hopes that there will appear a journalist, an interviewer worth his-her salt, who will sit up from his-her chair (usually of red cloth or plastic in Latvia) and ask a question with a bite. If the bite is deflected by a question arriving from God on an unrelated matter, but inspires the politician interviewed to speak in a babble of tongues immediately, the reporter will be hellish enough to ask the same question again.

The layout of the stage for the “100. pants” interviews is an inverted V, with the host sitting at the point of the V, while on his right hand sit three reporters, but on his left three interviewees. Of the latter, Ainars Shlesers (Šlesers) was the center of attention on Friday night. He was flanked by two partners from the political coalition known as “Par Labu Latviju” (Favoring A Good Latvia). These were Andris Shkhehle (Šķēle), three times former PM, and Maris Riekstinsh, former foreign minister.

The interview began with a hem and a ke-ke-rex from the host Gailitis. It signaled that the nothin’ special drive over the compost pile may commence. It took off immediately. First went Mr. Shlesers. The tractor, located at the bottom of the heap, went straight to the top, executed a dazzling turn toward nowhere, then passed the sticks and levers to Mr. Shkhehle, who did a somersault without the tractor losing its chains. The came Mr. Riekstins turn. The question from the reporters was on a foreign relations matter. As Riekstins made the answer (he fumbled at the levers a bit), it did not sound quite right to Mr. Shlesers, who interrupted him and quite extemporaneously commenced to expound on Latvia’s foreign policy. No reporter pointed out that then and there Shlesers had taken over the role of the Latvian Foreign Minister (now one Mr. Ronis). This vapid nothin’ special conversation went on ad nauseaum. While the news director (Mareks Gailitis) appeared to be in his element, the other three reporters were, for the most part, quiet as mice.

Yes, it occurred to me to wonder just why the viewing public was having all this cotton candy blown its way through their screens.

Here is the answer.

LTV Ziņu dienesta vadītājs ietekmē raidījumu saturu par labu Šleseram un Šķēlem
5.augusts 2010
Latvijā vairs nav brīvu mediju. Iespējams, šāds apgalvojums ir pārspīlējums, bet šajā rakstā mēs piedāvājam pierādījumus, ka pirmsvēlēšanu laikā politiski angažēts ir ne vien privāto mediju saturs, bet arī sabiedrisko mediju, šajā gadījumā – LTV Ziņu dienesta (ZD) raidījumu saturs.

Mūsu rīcībā ir nonākusi kādas vakar no darba atlaistas LTV ZD žurnālistes vēstule, kurā viņa norāda uz ZD vadītāja Mareka Gailīša politisko angažētību. Iespējams, šī vēstule ir tapusi aizvainojumā par atlaišanu, bet ir vērts ņemt vērā vēstulē izklāstītos faktus. Tie, savukārt, liecina, ka Mareks Gailītis jau ilgākā periodā tīši ietekmē LTV ZD žurnālistu darbu, lai pēc iespējas labākā gaismā parādītu politisko apvienību Par labu Latviju. Mūsuprāt, minētie ietekmēšanas gadījumi klaji pārkāpj sabiedrības tiesības uz vārda brīvību un degradē sabiedriskā medija jēgu, padarot to par viegli manipulējamu ieroci oportūnistisku politiķu un viņu līdzskrējēju rokās.

Izvilkums no vēstules:

“izrādās, ka (Mareks) Gailītis ir dedzīgs Par labu Latviju (PLL) atbalstītājs un ietekmē žurnālistus. Lūk, daži gadījumi:

1. kad tika dibināta šī organizācija, tad sestdienas rītā mans kolēģis, kuram bija jāveido par to sižets, saņēma vairākus telefona zvanus no Gailīša, kuru nolūks bija izkontrolēt, vai sižets tiešām tiks taisīts un īpaši piekodināts, ka mēs (LTV ZD) neesam ne par, ne arī pret šo organizāciju. Tas ir īpatnēji, jo, pirmkārt, citu organizāciju dibināšanu viņš nemaz nepiemin, otrkārt, tas bija sestdienā, kad Gailītis vispār neatceras, ka vada Ziņu dienestu, un, treškārt, tik aktīva interese par to, kas bus sižetā, ir neredzēta.

2. Pagājušajā svētdienā vispār bija nedzirdēta nekaunība – viņš lika žurnālistam veidot garu interviju ar (Juri) Savicki, kurš ir (gāzes kompānijas) Itera pārstāvis Latvijā un viens no lielākajiem Par labu Latviju ziedotājiem. Un burtiski – lika, lai gan žurnālists norādīja, ka, pirmkārt, šis bus reklāmsižets par Iteru un, otrkārt, arī par intervējamā politisko piederību. Tomēr Gailītis nelikās to dzirdam un uzdeva izveidot materiālu. Lai gan tikpat labi tagad citas partijas arī var pieprasīt raidlaiku un šādu interviju. Kāpēc gan ne”?

The above a quote from http://revolucija.eu/. Scroll down to the 5th of August entry to read the full text.

Oh, yes. DO NOT FORGET TO GO AND NOT-VOTE! A not vote means a vote for a change of the system; for provoking a crisis that will call forth a Constitutional Assembly to rewrite the Constitution (Satversme); that will most likely institute a four-year long authoritarian government (under the supervision of the EU); etc.

Asterisks & Links of Interest
Compulsory voting in the EU Parliamentary elections
http://www.ceps.eu/files/book/1886.pdf
The abstentionist elephant
http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php/site/article/8783/
Electronic polls
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/10102126.stm
On the Meaning of Voting
http://www.strike-the-root.com/92/bylund/bylund1.html
British Government Attempts to Bracket the Constitution
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/election_2010/8681624.stml
Ground Zero for Thought
http://www.alternet.org/module/printversion/146989
Why Forced Positive Thinking Is A Lot Of Crock?
http://www.alternet.org/story/146940/barbara_ehrenreich%3A_why_forced_positive_thinking_is_a_total_crock?page=2
The Trap
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAluyt5_kic