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

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/  

Photo: The "Suicide Shack"

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
28 Responsible Democracy Anyone?

Without going into detail concerning the reasons why rational democracy is failing in the United States, Europe, and indeed everywhere, we must nevertheless take a close look at the consequences of the Age of Enlightenment and rational Democracy in Latvia.

The advent of rational democracy in Latvia was greatly furthered by the Herrnhuter religious movement. Led by a farsighted German nobleman, Count Zinzendorf (he understood that natural democracy among the princes and barons had come to an end and wished a peaceful transition to a democracy shared with all people), the movement encouraged uneducated Latvians (as well as Africans and Americans) to learn how to read. By 1897 an estimated 92% of inhabitants of Livland (later Latvia) were literate.

Unfortunately, there was an inherent conflict in Graf Zinzendorf’s movement. Inspired as it was by the Age of Enlightenment, the nobleman championed individual freedom and a personal relationship with God. Zinzendorf’s goal threatened not only the authority of the Catholic and Lutheran churches, but the tsar of Russia. In 1742 the knighthood of Livonia with the help of the Empress Tsarina Elizabeth (in 1743) shut down the movement, and forced it to go underground. It recovered in 1764, when Empress Tsarina Catherine II restored (said to have occurred inadvertently) their religious rights. The Lutherans continued to impede the development of the movement, until Tsar Alexander I proclaimed them complete liberty in 1817. Still, the Lutherans persisted in their repression (they insisted that the state eliminate the Herrnhuter choirs, the movement’s core organizing unit (disallowing recruitment of new members), and eliminating elections by a lottery system. By 1860 the movement was for all practical purposes eliminated, and its near 70,000 members in Livland muted.

As Estonians and Latvians ought to know, if there had not been the educational effort of the Herrnhuter movement, which increased the literacy of the people, their nations would not have come into existence.

The above conclusion is one of the reasons to remember that the Herrnhuters first came into being in 1727, when Count Zinzendorf came to the aid of the Bohemian Brethren, a religious group originating in Taborite movement (originating in the Hussite movement) by granting them land (called Herrnhut). Tolerance for their faith came with it. Interestingly, the originator of the Hussite movement, Jan Hus, martyred by the Catholic church in 1415. The martyrdom of Hus occured a mere two hundred years after the elimination of the Cathar movement in Languedoc and the humiliation of the proto-Latvian leader, king Visvaldis of Jersika, both killing events taking place in 1209. The repression in Languadoc was so severe that according to some estimates nearly 500,000 people were killed. Military operations against the Cathars ceased in 1255. They ceased against Jersika in 1214, when a rebellion against the imposed peace by Visvaldis was repressed. All the same, opposition to the Catholic church, which was supported by secular princes, did not cease. Various religious movements other than Catholicism continued to exist. In short, a study of the Protestant movement sans doctrinal dogma leads discovers us among the heretics of the 13th, 12th, and earlier centuries. As this writer has written in other blogs, the Latvian Children of Johns, an almost meaningless designation today, were once upon a time the very essence of proto-Latvians.

Notwithstanding the repression of the Herrnhuter movement by the Lutheran church, the repression did not occur without resistance to it. The very first flag of the First Awakening of Latvians is the famous “Līgo” flag. It shows John as “vaidelotis” (priest) before a sacred altar. In the original drawing by Baumaņu Kārlis, we can still see in the background the Children of Johns. The original drawing (see “Jāņu Foto Albums”, Norden AB, 2007; also the archive at LNB) appears in a book published 1874. It features a collection of songs, some nationalistic in sentiment. This edition was destroyed almost in its entirety by then ruling regime of the Russian tsar. However, an even more devastating blow to the existence of the Children of Johns was the publication in 1888 of the pseudo epic called “Lāčplēsis” (literally, Destroyer of Bears) by the Latvian poet Pumpurs. Pumpurs by design (conscious or unconscious) replaces John with a pseudo hero. There is nary a protest from the gallery. Everyone is taken with the age of industrialism and has little idea what to do with the natives, the Herrnhuters. It seems that the Lutheran church has won.

Today (2010) a hundred and fifty years have passed since 1860, the year the historian marks as the end of the Herrnhuter movement in the Baltics. Almost no one on the internet sees history on the other side of the Soviet occupation as something real. 1860 incidentally happens to be the year of birth of my grandfather. I mention him, because my grandfather’s father (1804-1868) was a Herrnhuter. He was also “starasts” (an overseer of the works, a manager) of the local baron. He held Herrnhuter meetings at his inn on Sundays. Yet grandfather’s paternal half-sister, Evelina-Līze, is buried in a Lutheran churchyard, and buried not just anywhere, but beside the (now wrecked) “kaplicha” or graveyard church. Round and about goes history. Was the Lutheran pastor sympathetic to the Herrnhuters? Those who were sympathetic had to cease being so. All this happens in the vicinity of Valmiera, once the center of the Herrnhuter movement in Livland. Valmiera and vicinity also became the very center of the movement of national awakening. The very first national Song Festival occurred in the small town of Dīkļi, about 10 km from Valmiera.

What does all this have to do with my calling for a NOT-VOTE (come October 2) for the government of Latvia? I must ask the reader to refer to my letter (see: Jaņdžs) here. I write among other things that “The sacrificial victims of the ritual in Latvia—the Latvian soldiers of WW1 who were then compromised by the illegalism of Latvian legionaires of WW2—have become a no longer relevant sacrifice. The proofs of this are the acts of Latvian government during the last twenty years.” I realize that some grammarians will dispute my use of the word “illegalism” (it does not appear in the dictionary), but I use it to make a reference to the fact that the Latvian legionnaires, now accused of being part of Hitler’s SS, were not so, but were trapped into being so-called through the absence of legal advice before joining the battle against the Stalinists.

The illigalism of the legionnaires and the ignorance by the present of the past suggests that Latvians are in fact caught up and hurled into the maelstrom of the hapless. The crisis we are in is not just any crisis, It is a systems crisis. The repair of this broken engine is not possible. We need a new motor. To go a step beyond pop culture, this writer suggests that you go and vote the NOT-VOTE.

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