Tolstoyans are followers of the philosophical and religious views of Lev Tolstoy, Christian Pacifist Anarchists in a way. One of their principles is a vegetarian or vegan diet.

While I inked this page I listened a bit to Tolstoy’s The Kingdom of God Is Within You (on Librivox). There are some quite interesting ideas. Actually it happens to be very similar to the kind of “Pacifist Anarchist Christianity” that my mum taught us (or the way I interpreted it and what has stuck to my memory), for example by claiming that Jesus wouldn’t kill a mosquito that was sucking his blood, but let it suck his blood to its content, or in various situations exemplifying the “turn the other cheek” principle.

I’m not really sure I agree with some other ideas in the book, though (let alone all the religious stuff). One is how it encourages people to leave their families (like Tolstoy himself did) and devote themselves to the Cause. To me taking care of your family is inextricably linked to the Cause. Of course, if you don’t get along with them it’s a different situation … And I guess if you happened to marry the wrong person in 19th century Russia you were pretty much stuck with them for the rest of your life. (^^); Which fortunately is no longer the case today in quite a few parts of the world.

Another idea I might not entirely agree with is how some proponents of the “doctrine of non-resistance to evil by force” that Tolstoy quotes say that dying for your ideas (like Jesus did) is better than succumbing to oppression. I used to champion that idea when I was younger, but now that I am older and wiser (?!) I am more cautious about it. One of the things I respect about Shia Islam, a religion that throughout its history has been subject to a lot of persecution, is that it is permissible to renounce your faith in a life or death situation (Taqiyya). Also, a scene from Catch-22 comes to mind — Nately, a young American soldier who is outraged at the opportunism of the old Italian guy in the brothel says, “It’s better to die on your feet than live on your knees!”, and the old guy says he’s got it backwards: “– It’s better to live on your feet than to die on your knees.” (He says he knows, because he’s 107 years old.)
Isn’t encouraging people to die for their ideas similarly bad as a government encouraging people to die in their wars (after convincing them of the necessary ideas)?

Plenty of food for thought, in any case, and quite interesting to listen to.

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D’awww, someone found this site by searching for “sagittarius-horse with virgo-goat” – just like Shannon and Seraphine. It warms my heart in a perverse way to know that there are other (prospective) lovers out there with the same combination of astrological signs.