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http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/17/world/europe/russia-pussy-riot-trial/index.html?hpt=hp_t3 Just wondered if anyone else has been following this case about the Russian band, Pussy Riot? Mixed feelings about it.
What? Sent from my SCH-I500 using Tapatalk 2
They are getting what they wanted, attention for a political agenda. It just comes with a price they don’t seem too surprised at (jail time). I think our laws on freedom of speech are sometimes so zealous in protecting speech rights that things that are inappropriately done, but the greater good is served even if small annoyances are tolerated.
On a international trip my brother was taking during the 1980s one of te stops was in U.S.S.R.(Russia specifically) for which he was briefly arrested for having(carrying) a bible/BOM. Now it looks like the chicken has come home to roost. Quite a interesting change of events with the russian church supporting government(president). Considering the history of persecution from government to religion. So much so that many Russian converts I know we’re baptized at night in a lake to avoid being arrested as they told me. You can bet your bottom dollar that if someone had done something like this in a cathedral in Washington DC they would have been locked up as well… Hahahahahhahaaaa! I just wonder … if the name of this band were “Bellybutton Riot,” would they have gotten anywhere near the publicity they have? When I hear the talking heads on the radio announce the name of the band over and over again, I can almost hear them grinning over the airwaves. It’s like they’re having a competition to see how many times they can fit it in. Now, for the substance … they chose a very public place for their “performance,” and in the middle of a church rite, no less. I’d have much more sympathy for them had they simply released a music video or made their point in a public space (like a park or sidewalk). But they purposefully barged into the biggest church in Moscow, the seat of the Russian Orthodox Church, and disrupted a service. Ergo, I’ve got little sympathy for them.
Having said that, I totally agree with their position – Russia has slid back into dictatorship with the tacit support of the Russian Orthodox Church.
Hahahaaahhahahaa. Sent from my SCH-I500 using Tapatalk 2
There are a lot of interesting points here, this is why I brought it up – * The church in general, and all forms of religion, were treated brutally by the USSR for decades, and priests etc sent off to Siberian camps.
So a lot of remaining believers get upset when they think their church is under physical threat.
But…
* The Orthodox Church has always been complicit with the state. It supported the tsar in all actions including anti-semitic pogroms, and is currently backing Putin (which is why this band is protesting).
and…
* Putin himself says if they had protested in a synagogue in Israel, they would have got in big trouble, and a mosque in the Middle East, they wouldn’t have even got to the courtroom.
Quote:if the name of this band were “Bellybutton Riot,” would they have gotten anywhere near the publicity they have?
Don’t think so. The western media has its own agenda with Russia, always has done. I think the place has bad human rights, but I think a lot of current western military policy, including the Middle East, Balkans etc is all to do with Russia. So it’s all about making Russia look bad, even though Saudi Arabia is more repressive.
I think if this protest had happened in Salt Lake Temple, they would have been locked up too…
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-19297373 I think there are certain issues that are similar to LDS problems here…
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/08/2012823795897200.html Quote:The female punk group
Riot started off as an offspring of Voina (lit. “War”), an art collective that gained considerably notoriety for its street performances since 2006. Membership between the two groups overlaps to such an extent that they might as well be said to be one and the same, at least as far as their anarchist ideals – as expressed through their “artistic” acts – are concerned. These acts are occasionally funny, typically gross, sometimes criminal, and always provocative.It’s basically a story of the good, the bad, and the ugly.
[section cut]
Yet most offensive was perhaps the action “Mordovian Hour”, in which Voina activists celebrated International Labour Day by entering a McDonald’s and pelting the staff with live cats as a “a fine gift to a low-paid labour force, devoid of enjoyment from contemporary radical art on that holiday”. I’m sure the downtrodden proletariat appreciated Voina remedying that.
As the ideological offspring of Voina, the band
Riot continued in similar vein. They staged a series of “guerilla” performances across Moscow, including atop a scaffold in the Metro or at the Lobnoye Mesto on Red Square, the scene of executions in centuries past. They were following in the 19th-century traditions of Russian anarchism, with its emphasis on “propaganda of the deed” as a means of awaking the masses to the country’s corruption and authoritarianism. They saw themselves as frontline combatants fighting against the regime, inspired by the likes of Nikolai Berdyaev, the riot grrrls, and Rage Against the Machine. But perhaps frustratingly for them, neither the regime nor society took much notice of them. All they experienced up to a certain point was scandalised headlines and the odd symbolic fine.Then things went from good to ugly.
They performed a “punk prayer” in front of the altar of the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour.
[section cut]
The “propaganda of the deed” strategy is appearing to pay off, with the past few days seeing an arson attempt on a church in Baltiysk, and a solidarity “action” by the Ukrainian feminist group FEMEN that involved cutting down a memorial crucifix. The image of Russia as “a European Iran” was strengthened, no matter how tendentious the actual comparison. In the meantime,
Riot has gained huge amounts of publicity, and even a certain cult figure status.
I would like to note though that I work with a huge amount of 1st generation American Russians. Many are not yet American citizens yet. All most all that I have spoke to had some not so nice words to say about Putin. So their view point is shared by many many who lived under him that I know. Apparently a woman has cut down a cross in Kiev in retaliation for the imprisonment. Kiev is in the Ukraine not Russia (but still former USSR) SamBee wrote:Apparently a woman has cut down a cross in Kiev in retaliation for the imprisonment. Kiev is in the Ukraine not Russia (but still former USSR)
Ya, I probably should have mentioned my ex fiancé of 5 years was from Ukraine. That’s how I ended up moving to the largest population of Russians in the USA. I have a lot of experience from thier point of view because I baptized my fiancé who later listened to her patents and community that told her to”drop religion and focus on school and traveling the world, you will have plenty of time to seek god when your over 60″. There were a few that did bear their testimony to me risking thier life and or jail time by getting baptized at night in a lake before moving to USA. Most I met ate still really hostile to any merging or backing of governent by a church, believing strongly that it will only lead to more religious violence and power as in the past. Most expressed a hatred of Putin, many came to the USA for the separation of church and state. In my life, that was the first time I encountered that point of view.
It’s not just about Putin though, it’s also the fact that the USSR attacked the church/churches throughout most of the twentieth century. SamBee wrote:It’s not just about Putin though, it’s also the fact that the USSR attacked the church/churches throughout most of the twentieth century.
Oh, that wasn’t my intent when saying this. Sorry for the misunderstanding. I ment to say that (from a very prevalent Russian point of view that the church(s) are more destructive and controlling to humanity then the laws and governments of the former USSR(to them). I’ve been told that point blank by 1000s of them within the community for the past 10 years. That is how they view it. Some see it the other way around(a very small minority in my experience). I was playing from thier point. I don’t have to agree with it and I didn’t, but I did listen to it numerous times at counlesd russian gatherings with my then fiancé. I often play both sides to get a understanding and mediate between people with different points of view. To encourage understanding(understanding and agreeing aren’t the same thing).
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