That is a quote, I think, from the first major book (published 1938) of German-born writer Walter Schubart, a Russophile, Doctor of Law and Doctor of Philosophy who, ironically, died in a Russian prisoner of war camp in Kazakhstan in 1942 at the age of 45 – almost two and a half years to the day before I was born (not that there is any relevance to that, but it is interesting to me and it does frame the times we are speaking of). I do not recollect knowing anything of the man prior to late last night where he was mentioned, almost as an afterthought and as a tempter to further study, just before the end of the latest blog post piece from Simplicius – linked below.
‘SITREP 4/19/24: A Small Gust for Ukraine’s Sails?’ – Simplicius
I was revved up to try to make something of this last night, but since it was then 1am and I should have been asleep, mentally exhausted from a fully occupied day, I decided to delay that task until the next morning, simply recording the links here as the skeleton framework of this post. As it happens, this morning, the energised moment has now passed and I cannot drive myself to the task which I know would be quite an emotionally and intellectually draining one.
But, figuring this to be an important moment in time, and the content to be possibly of interest to readers, I am publishing these bare-bones details for such interested parties to follow up for themselves.
Simplicius’ posting is of course interesting, as almost always, in itself. Apart from the details of the current conflict, Simplicius offers the quote below, which I assume to be derived from the Schubart 1938 book – since it is not present in the ‘Philitt’ post he provided – link, somewhere, below.
“Western European man views life as a slave whose neck he has stepped on… He does not look with devotion at the sky, but, full of lust for power, looks down at the earth with evil, hostile eyes. Russian people are obsessed not with the will to power, but with a feeling of reconciliation and love. He is filled not with anger and hatred, but with the deepest trust in the essence of the world. He sees in man not an enemy, but a brother.” An Englishman wants to see the world as a factory, a Frenchman as a salon, a German as a barracks, a Russian as a church. The Englishman wants loot, the Frenchman wants glory, the German wants power, the Russian wants sacrifice. The Englishman wants to profit from his neighbor, the Frenchman wants to impress his neighbor, the German wants to command his neighbor, but the Russian doesn’t want anything from him. He does not want to turn his neighbor into his means. This is the brotherhood of the Russian heart and the Russian idea. And this is the Gospel of the future. The Russian all-man is the bearer of a new solidarity. Promethean man is already doomed to death. The era of John’s man is coming – a man of love and freedom. This is the future of the Russian people. The West is driven by unbelief, fear and selfishness; The Russian soul is driven by faith, peace and brotherhood. That is why the future belongs to Russia…”
If you do not consider that quote, though written more than 80 years ago, to be a reflection of the world today, then I suggest you do not need to read any further. [I am not here to change opinions, only, hopefully, to inform] Otherwise, I think the link (below) will be of great interest to you. This is a French language piece but my Yandex browser, requiring no effort on my part, immediately translates it to very good English for me. If you need to scratch around for a translator, why not try Yandex for yourself?
The title of the piece is – Walter Schubart : l’Orient peut-il régénérer l’Occident? – Or, in English – ‘Walter Schubart : the East can regenerate the West?’.
The rest I leave for your own further development to undertake. I will just make one further thought to ponder, as you decide whether or not to develop this line. Buried within the quote in the Simplicius post is the sentence – “The era of John’s man is coming“. What does that signify? Well, the Philitt piece goes into that a little further but it is interesting to note that the Biblical works attributed to the Apostle John (five books in total) have always been viewed as possibly of spurious origin, calling into question even the basic Christian doctrine of The Trinity while attributing to man more actual ‘humanity’ or ‘soul’ than the Bible generally ascribes. Now there’s an opportunistic opening to much further study – for those who want to take it. Here’s a starter. In modern times, this concern with the authenticity of John’s books was reopened during 1934-35 by Walter Bauer. Was Schubart inspired by or even somehow involved in that?
Ok, just one further thought. In this modern world of shallow materialism we need deep thinkers – before thinking our own individual thoughts, whether based on genuine study of solidly based sensory input or emanating from esoteric inspiration in our own individual minds, becomes a thing of the past. Simplicius, if he is anything, and we do know little about him other than through his writing, is a deep thinker. And one not intimidated or unphazed by the reproaches of individuals with perhaps greater but narrowly focussed experience in one or a few fields which bear little relationship to any of the broad scope of issues which he covers.
So, what was meant to be just a few words to inspire further study has turned into a full post – even though I have not talked much about anything I was intending to do last night. Ah well, that’s life.

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