A story about Romania that's totally not about anything else.

The Romanian aspirational class, which is to say kidsⁱ in their mid 20s to mid 30s who would like others to believe they have a University degree but in point of fact ate USG dole for a few years under the "student" rubric and ended up with a "degree" in "Criminology" or such nonsense really really don't like the Romanian Orthodox Church.

Far be it from me to defend the clergy, after five decades of soviet-socialist infiltration followed by three decades of us-socialist infiltration there's scarcely one part per million left in there that even vaguely understands what the church is even supposed to be, or what's it about. The last man to properly speaking have had a clue was my late dear friend Valeriu Ananiaⁱⁱ, a decade or so ago. Since his demise I've yet to encounter a monk, priest or bishop capable of cogent discussion of the scriptures in context.

And far be it from me to defend faith, in general or any particular, either. It's not my cup, at all. But it being not my cup doesn't mean I don't understand how each is supposed to go, exactly in the manner I teach the girls how to dress even though I've no use for A-lines or stockings in my own wardrobe.

Finally, far be it from me to defend Romania, it's a shameful pit of idiocy, and always was, and besides, it appears to be coming to a natural end anyway.

Bereft of defenders, so it goes : the scientist-calvinist crowdⁱⁱⁱ of 2017 doesn't like the traditional pillar of Romanian identity because there's people in there who don't belong. That the people in there who don't belong were specifically planted by scientist-calvinism in order for it to have something to point at later in the attempt to discredit^iv the whole by discussing the parts is entirely coincidental and absolutely not how the whole charade works in the first place. And also how this whole logic thing works, right, you can invalidate the notion of a car by taking any given car, replacing its engine with a broken one from a different car entirely, the transmission with a block of wood and slicing three of four tyres. Clearly this proves (in the scientist-calvinist understanding of proof) that... wait for it... that cars are bad! Don't work! Bycicles for everyone!

The discussion is carried in the by-now familiar terminology of "corruption" : the Orthodox church dares propose to deviate capital flows away from the purposes of scientist-calvinism, which is practically speaking money laundering, right ? Also, sex crimes! The folk who don't understand "what benefit do I draw from square roots" and would like to have it explained "how the news relates to them" desire, request, demand! that it be explained (in their own terms) why should the church exist as an agent! What scientist-calvinist sense does it make to even have a Patriarch, how exactly is the agenda of the USG promoted by the Romanian Synod, and what proof is to be had that a coupla girlies approaching vertiginously the end of their useful life as receptionists in US Embassy-financed "PR agencies"^v couldn't do a much better job of it ???

And what do you mean, "the church and its elements exist specifically to make USGization impossible" ?! Do you mean you prefer to be colonized by Russia ? What is this "would prefer to not be colonized at all" ?! But everyone knows no such thing is possible! Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

In fairness, all these internal discussions make the poor, recently enfranchised nigglet's head hurt. How about we just agree teh church is bad mkay and go have some chicken mcwings ? They can be any flavour you like, as long as Sysco delivers them.

1. Very literally, children. Never killed a man, never raped a girl into womanhood, never tasted death, never had anything of their own, be it a piece of property, an idea, a feeling, a notion, a nothing whatsoever. [↩]
2. An upright fellow who served six months in his 20s for hiding weapons in the monastery attic. No joke. [↩]
3. You know, the "just the facts" douches. [↩]
4. You are aware this is how the stealing of the having been stolen from goes, right ?

   Whenever confronted with a stable group, the digestive process of scientist-calivnism goes like so :

   1. Inflate the ranks of agents with a larger group of freshly minted agents chosen so that their average competency is lower than the original's average. Because life is a weighing machine, not a voting machine, you are guaranteed to encounter a selection : only the more competent elements of a system will be agents in that system, in direct proportion to the total energy (ie, wealth) of the system in question. Consequently you will always have at the ready a group of items with lower competency than the group of agents to finance the inflation.
   2. Construct false arguments that happen to be convenient, and which are sufficiently elaborate to pass the superficial muster of the recently promoted agents.

   This simple two-stroke engine has worked splendidly in rendering traditional societies, bringing them all the "benefits" of "civilisation" : the indians got reservations, the fabulously wealthy Asian states got "modern democracy", truly everyone is better off for the great, peaceful, benevolent and wise two-stroke approach. What, you mean to say men could support a large family, including a housewife and a soubrette living in a large, comfortable house before ; whereas the atomic fambly gets to never meet again to pay for the tiny apartment after ? Why so there you have it, the stock market is up! Progress!

   The scientist part of the scientist-calvinist system kicks in here, whereby supposedly sanity is now stuck arguing with all the recently promoted pseudo-agents as if they were actual agents, and "i don't see" and "that's not how debates work" and so on and so forth. And so there you have it, a bunch of idiots too stupid to be able to appreciate just how stupid they are will defend the "great victories" of socialism-by-whatever-name-it-carries-today from all the evil/terrorist/criminal/enemy-of-the-people assaults of sanity, while loudly proclaiming general nonsense that exactly contradicts their own practice. [↩]

5. Or you know, various other things. [↩]