About the “Mirror-MAGA” movement in the USA:
On the “other side of the mirror” in the pre-1980 USA, many people who self-identified as “patriots” considered that this required an attitude of support for “my country, right or wrong.”
Now, 45 years after passing through the “point of inflection” in 1980, we can see clearly how the “Reagan Economic Miracle” has “Satanized” this once noble country – it is no longer capable of being “right” under any circumstances. No matter which individuals are “elected” to positions of political office, this country’s extraordinary power is inevitably employed to advance the pecuniary interests of those who occupy the top of the “Reagan Economic Miracle” pyramid. And this is always “sold” to American consumers with a maudlin narrative, typically founded on “invented” “facts,” and replete with buzzwords like “liberal democracy,” “humanitarian values” and “human rights.”
Ironically, the most fundmental “human right” of all long since ceased to exist in those manifestations of “liberal democracy” (which the USA seeks to impose on the rest of the world) that are aligned with the “Reagan Economic Miracle” in the USA. The Russian Orthodox Church (via spokesman Archpriest V. Chaplin) describes this “fundamental human right” as the right to be “free from transformation of the human personality into a commodity, an impersonal module of a consumer-technological system.” (See Russian Orthodox Church at the beginning of the 21st century, S.G. Osmachko (2013) (in Russian), note 33).
Protestants have a difficult time grasping what this “fundamental human right” that they no longer possess is. Understanding this “fundamental human right” entails understanding that the human personality is a “trinity” (i.e., an image of God) – one component of this “trinity” being the mysterious “spirit,” which co-exists with “soul” and “body.” In societies such as the USA which deny consumers this “fundamental human right,” the “individual rights” that are much-touted by the West become, frankly, meaningless, because “spirit” is effectively “excised” from the “structure” of society, from the “social fabric.” Such “spiritless” societies thrive, economically, by convincing consumers that “I know who I am” without ever arriving in a state where “spirit,” “soul” and “body” comprise a harmonious presence and certainly without any kind of “connection” between the individual and a unified “collective spirit.” In such societies, secular liberalism actively works against the attainment of unity (harmonious presence) within oneself, and even more so against trinitarian (“love thy neighbor as thyself”) communion with others.
President Donald Trump and his “Make America Great Again (MAGA)” movement are now preparing American consumers for a domestic “war” against “the enemy within.” But WHO is this “enemy within?” According to Democrats it is Republicans and according to Republicans it is Democrats. Trump’s MAGA followers call themselves “patriots.” Yet any real “patriot” with eyes to see and ears to hear must surely realize that the real “enemy within” is both the Democrats and the Republicans. It is the group which, while paying for both of these parties’ “electoral campaigns,” tells American consumers that the USA needs a trillion-dollar-per-year “Department of War” in order to advance their interests in the world. It is the group which, speaking through their Democrat and Republican well-paid servants (who are in “reality” spiritual slaves), tells consumers to prepare for a “showdown fight” against the evil Chinese, the evil Russians and the evil Iranians.
America’s coming struggle against “the enemy within” is not unlike the struggle undertaken by an individual sinner struggling to be Christian according to Orthodox teaching – this is the struggle to get free of one’s badness in order to be able to BE one’s prayer (a unified presence) and to “love thy neighbor as thyself” (attain trinitarian communion “in Christ” with “thy neighbor”).
The “mirror-MAGA movement” is about consumers who want to “Make America Good Again” through what I call “American Perestroika.” “American Perestroika” knowingly entails the collapse of the “Reagan Economic Miracle” political-economic order. This is about choosing to “kill the beast” before it kills us. It is about accepting the “Godly suffering” that will attend a sudden decline of GDP to pre-1980 levels (in relative terms). America’s nuclear deterrent is entirely sufficient to protect the country against invasion, no matter how bad the domestic economic situation may become. No amount of failure to pay mortgages will cause any existing buildings to spontaneously fall down! Shared economic deprivation can serve to bring consumers together who have been willfully “scattered apart” by “divide-and-conquer” “mechanical capitalism.”
I do not believe that there yet remains in “Reagan Economic Miracle” “liberal democracies” anything that can reasonably be construed as free, sincere, legitimate “electoral process.” And this is, in my view, openly admitted by the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee report “Putin’s Asymmetric Assault on Democracy in Russia and Europe” (S. Prt. 115-21)(2018). This report identifies as an “assault on democracy” attempts to convince consumers to reject the “centrist consensus” (i.e., the “Reagan Economic Miracle” political-economic order and subservience to the “enemy within”).
And so, this story is never going to have a happy “Meet John Doe” Hollywood ending whereby American consumers defeat the “enemy within” and “Make America Good Again” via “electoral process.”
Nevertheless, I believe the time will soon come when consumers will be given the opportunity to repent themelves of the “Reagan Economic Miracle” and turn to Christ, for real, this time, with a sincere, sustained effort to re-build American society according to the founding principle “love thy neighbor as thyself.” This opportunity will arise because the “Reagan Economic Miracle” will soon collapse under the “weight” of its own hypocrisy and its unsustainable “printing” of “money” which “money” is ultimately backed only by military power and the will to use it (i.e., to commit mass murder in furtherance of pecuniary aims).
The Mirror-MAGA movement is a wave of realization that is slowly but inevitably permeating the culture of cognitive dissonance whereby American consumers remain convinced of their own individual goodness, unwilling to confront their horrific collective badness or the related spiritual catastrophy of the Reagan Economic Miracle that they inflicted on themselves and are attempting to inflict on the rest of the world.
LINK TO VIDEO IN ENGLISH
https://rutube.ru/video/private/13da66c49d61295c5a6df587bfc9271b/?p=PXpgQL2658M0p8ZpOuM6vg
LINK TO VIDEO IN RUSSIAN
https://rutube.ru/video/private/90d871f3496a152dc568897fa51a8faa/?p=1SLOzf9tOIvzPAhkIldnig
About the “Union of Orthodox Workers” movement in the Russian Federation:
In the “question and answer” portion of his October, 2025, presentation to the Valdai Discussion Club, President Putin commented about his 2024 “decree number 702.” This relaxes conditions for obtaining a Russian residence permit as a form of “humanitarian support” for “individuals who share traditional Russian spiritual and moral values:” “Indeed, people are coming, motivated not so much by political reasons, but rather by values,” Putin said. “Especially from European countries, because what I would call ‘gender terrorism’ against children there does not sit well with many people, and they are looking for safe havens.”
I am myself a “spiritual refugee” from the USA living in Russia under this decree. And I want to, respectfully, present my strong opinion that the expectation that Russian “spiritual and moral values” will maintain themselves in perpetuity, simply because Russia took a stand against “gender terrorism,” is not likely to be realized. I respectfully submit that “gender terrorism” is only a symptom, NOT THE CAUSE of the “Satanic” character manifest by “mechanical capitalism” as exemplified by “Reagan Economic Miracle” “liberal democracies.”
Myself a sinner struggling to be Orthodox christian, who lived for 20 years as an “urban monk” in Western Europe, I can emphatically testify from first hand experience that the mysterious collective spiritual phenomenon of “sobornost” is still “alive and well” in Russia. Because of this, and with the support of my home parish in Saint Petersburg, I am able to BE my prayer, to live in peace and repentance, and to “swim” “with the stream” of Russian society. In contrast, in the “liberal democracy” West, sinners sincerely struggling to be Orthodox christians have no choice but to “swim” “against the stream” of society.
The great danger that confronts Russian “spiritual and moral values” is, obviously, not “gender terrorism,” but rather the emergence of Russian “mechanical capitalism” – a commercialist-consumerist economy that worships ego and that will, as individual material levels rise, inevitably drive consumers into anti-“sobornost,” that is, into an “every person for themself” social context. One need only look to the USA and Western Europe to see where this road leads. Moreover, this tendency will be amplified and accelerated by the increasing incidence of what I call “internet head.” This is a tendency of bright persons to exist in a mental state within the ultra-fast internet “hive mind” that is dissociated from their “spirit” and, accordingly, from the tendency for “trinitarian communion” that is the origin of “sobornost.”
Coming to Russia as a “spiritual refugee” from the West, I see very plainly that “sobornost” is still “alive and well” here. Yet, from the perspective of some church officials, “sobornost” is already lost. “Where do we have sobornost in real life now?” asks priest F. Parfenov. “If it really existed, if we had communal life, a kind of civil society within the Church, then we could, drawing on this experience, interact with the outside world and bring something to it from the heights of spiritual experience.” (See Russian Orthodox Church at the beginning of the 21st century, S.G. Osmachko (2013) (in Russian), note 32) I respectfully submit that priest F. Parfenov is quite wrong in his conclusion that “sobornost” is missing from the “outside world.” In my view, he is simply lazy, spoiled by how much easier it is to do the “work of the people” within “the sacrament of the assembly” compared with the greater challenge that presents itself “on the street,” within the “stream” of Russian society. It may be true that the “level” of “sobornost” has dropped from what church-going people remember from “the good old days.” But however low this “level” may have dropped, it is still orders of magnitude greater than what consumers can hope to experience in “Reagan Economic Miracle” “liberal democracies” where the “social fabric” is literally “anti-sobornost.”
The “elites” of “the system” have, I suspect, only (at best) an “academic” understanding of what “sobornost” in the “outside world” actually IS. They shuttle back and forth in chauffeur driven cars between luxurious, guarded apartments in the city and dachas in the country. They pass their “free time” in expensive hotels and restaraunts. If they have ever taken public transport, it was many, many years ago. Moreover, something like 70% of them are jews, not sinners struggling to be Orthodox Christians. (I speak emphatically against racial anti-semitism and invite jews to join us in peaceful coexistence within a society founded on “sobornost,” which is, effectively, a collective manifestation of the principle “love thy neighbor as thyself.”)
Many young Russians have a negative view of the Orthodox Church “apparatus” and are, in my view, very likely to drift away from Russian “spiritual and moral values” in the absence of active efforts to preserve and perpetuate “sobornost” within the “social fabric.” But herein lies a great challenge: How is it possible to make a “spiritual movement” that necessarily challenges the tendency of “the system” towards “mechanical capitalism” without this also being construed as a “political movement?” The Church rightfully shies away from “political movements.” And Russians are rightfully afraid to make any kind of “political movement” because Russian law literally criminalizes any activity that any local prosecutor might choose to construe as “extremism.”
And so, I offer this “clarion call:” The preservation of Russian “spiritual and moral values” in future generations hinges critically on the maintenance of “sobornost” within the “social fabric.” The case can be made that “the system” is actively, albeit unknowingly, opposed to this aim because it is actively aligned with “economic development” according to the principles of “mechanical capitalism.”
There is, accordingly, an urgent need to explore alternatives to “mechanical capitalism” as the “driver” of “economic development.” The prospective “Union of Orthodox Workers” is one such alternative. In the broadest sense, this is an effort to harmonize the spiritual and economic interests of the society as it develops in the future.
Before any concrete steps can be taken to actualize this idea, I propose to directly ask President Putin for his “blessings” (i.e., his assurance that participants will not be prosecuted for “extremism” or otherwise subject by “the system” to unpleasant consequences). Letters of support from higher authorities within the Russian Orthodox Church and from at least one oligarch would be helpful.
I want to ask the President to affirm that it cannot ever be a criminal act of “extremism” to demand that “the system” in Russia respect and defend the “fundamental “human right” identified by the Church – to be free from “personality commodification within an impersonal module of a consumer-technological system.”
This idea, if it is permitted to be actualized, will almost certainly take on a “life of its own.” My “first draft” “thumbnail sketch” of a possible evolutionary path for it is as follows: The Union seeks to appeal to believers who are not among the 7% of the population that regularly attends the “sacrament of the assembly.” At first this is simply a combined cultural organization and temporary employment service. It organizes cultural gatherings, musical and otherwise, and negotiates contracts for its members, of which 10% is pledged to support the Moscow Patriarchate. It encourages members’ participation, wearing some characteristic emblem of membership, in processions of the cross – large scale public demonstrations that we know “the system” will allow. Eventually, with time and growth in membership, the Union can directly ask “the system” for loans whereby it can construct the “means of production” and appealing living accomodations for its members and their families, particularly in Russia’s vast, undeveloped interior. In this manner, the Union itself becomes the “driver” of “economic development.”
LINK TO VIDEO IN ENGLISH
https://rutube.ru/video/e1e5ba728b553123ceb523ee6c95e36b
LINK TO VIDEO IN RUSSIAN
https://rutube.ru/video/e1e5ba728b553123ceb523ee6c95e36b/
About the Editor:
The editor is known by his Orthodox name Theophan and his ochestvo Robertovich.
He is a retired American living in Saint Petersburg, Russia, who refers to himself as a “spiritual refugee.”
The three icons shown with “recent posts” are of Saints with whom Theophan has been praying for many years – St. Theophan the Recluse (Russian), St. Gregory Palamas (Greek) and St. Pitirim of Tambov (Russian).