Andrew Sorokowski's column

Grassroots Resistance

22.04.2014, 09:52
Grassroots Resistance - фото 1
If townspeople, craftsmen, artists, and small business owners can organize themselves in defense of their folk culture, then they can do the same to defend their religion. For the same forces that destroy local cultures also annihilate local spiritual traditions and ways of life.

sorokowski_lvivIf townspeople, craftsmen, artists, and small business owners can organize themselves in defense of their folk culture, then they can do the same to defend their religion. For the same forces that destroy local cultures also annihilate local spiritual traditions and ways of life.

As Ukrainians contemplate the prospect of a Russian occupation, thoughts of popular resistance come to mind. Such resistance can take different forms, however, and can arise even in peaceful circumstances.

One of the more touching sights on the Maidan, glimpsed in a video report, was a home-made sign reading “Kamianka Buz’ka for Europe.” Little Kamianka Buz’ka (population 11,700) in western Ukraine’s Lviv region, formerly Kaminka Strumylova, wants to be a part of Europe too. And why not? The city dates from at least the fifteenth century, and is the source of a manuscript Gospel of 1411 now preserved in Kyiv.But the interesting point is that this declaration came from ordinary protesters. It was a grassroots manifestation of Ukraine’s European identity.

A couple of years ago, the western Ukrainian city of Ivano-Frankivsk issued a promotional video on the occasion of its 350th anniversary. Founded in 1662, the city was known as Stanisławòw under Polish rule until 1939 and as Stanislav until 1962. The video was, of course, an example of official boosterism. But it described an initiative of the city’s small business owners to promote an authentically Ukrainian image of the city in response to the vulgar commercialization that had cluttered its public spaces with gaudy advertisements. A design based on folk embroidery patterns was adopted as the city’s logo, and initiatives were undertaken in various areas of activity to promote Ivano-Frankivsk as a Ukrainian city open to European tourism. It may also have been a collective effort of small business to resist the intrusion of big business, whether in the form of megastores, retail or fast-food chains, or popular but meaningless brand names.

Thus,native culture and local business can defend themselves against outside economic forces. In Ukraine’s current situation, those forces could be large Russian enterprises, supported and controlled by the state, seeking to dominate the Ukrainian economy. But if Ukraine succeeds in maintaining a pro-European orientation, those outside economic forces could also be coming from the West in the form of multinational corporations that drive small companies out of business and flood the market with cheap goods. In either case, grassroots activism has shown that it can mount a successful defense. In doing so, it makes Ivano-Frankivsk the kind of city that is likely to attract tourists, who are looking for the unique artifacts of a vital folk culture and its underlying local economy, not another replica of faceless global mass culture and its generic products.

If this is true of economic and cultural activity, then it should also be true of spiritual culture. If townspeople, craftsmen, artists, and small business owners can organize themselves in defense of their folk culture, then they can do the same to defend their religion. For the same forces that destroy local cultures also annihilate local spiritual traditions and ways of life. The “civilization” of the shopping mall has no room for the parish and its surrounding economic community, nor for its values of thrift and moderation. The corporate global culture abhors the restraints of religious ethics and morality. The teachings of the Church are countered and subverted by the mass media. Hence, only the commitment of a grassroots movement can successfully resist the challenges to the Christian way of life. 

In the past, Catholic Action sought to preserve Catholic values in secular society. But Catholic Action was directed by the bishops. Today, such initiatives are likely to fail. A movement springing from the laity, on the other hand, can succeed. Certainly, such a movement requires the guidance and sometimes the correction of religious authority. But in order to successfully resist the challenges from the outside world, it mustcome from the grassroots.If the townspeople of Kamianka Buz’ka can aspire to Europe, and the burghers of Ivano-Frankivsk can protect their folk culture, then Ukrainian believers can organize to resist the forces of secularization and find their unique place in a revived Christendom.

Andrew Sorokowski

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