Separate and build anew

Once a system, exempli gratia, the United States government, gets to a certain size, no one is able to change it; it takes on a life (and death) and determination of its own. Those people who love and depend on it rise with it as it grows and matures, but they also catch its many diseases as it begins to decay and wither from senility. History proves that it has always been thus with large systems which have come before us and then passed away.

From On the Moscow Patriarchate: A Letter for Pascha, 2008, at the Rus Journal, a Russian Orthodox website:

Our era is no different. Though the Orthodox are not openly persecuted, the System has far more subtle methods to brainwash the population. Television, pornography -- now mainstream and supported by corporate capital -- and the corrupt university system have made certain that the old ways of thinking are buried under the crass appeal to passions and power. Fearful of open debate, they have created structures of social engineering that the USSR simply did not have. The result: 35,000 suicides every year in the U.S., the overwhelming majority of these by white males. A huge upsurge in female domestic violence with little state action against them. 3,700 abortions per day in America. 118 million prescriptions in 2005 for anti depressants in the U.S. According to the British press, hospital admissions for abuse of illegal drugs have tripled over the last five years. However one looks at it, these are the results of “technological progress,” liberalism and modern culture.

At the present time there are many suicides taking place in the world. Both from disbelief and from lack of patience. They do not want to endure anything. If the Lord had not given to man the nature desire to life, maybe all would kill themselves. – Elder Joseph of Optina

Why do men learn through pain and suffering and not through pleasure and happiness? Very simply because pleasure and happiness accustom one to satisfaction with the world, whereas pain and suffering drive one to seek a more profound happiness beyond the limitations of this world. - Fr. Seraphim Rose

As a result, the retreat from the world, rather than “engagement” with it, as the OCA/MP complex demands, is necessary. The building of alternative structures of education, worship, economics and finance are absolute necessary to preserve the faith, not to mention our very health, both mental and physical.

Among the Old Belief, this was successful, with fairly well off communities and a merchant class that was willing to finance them, the Old Faith retained its integrity almost completely outside of society. In America, the Amish and Hasidic Jews have done the same. The communities they control render the outside world largely irrelevant. Just in my own south Pennsylvania neighborhood, the Amish have their own schools, dairy farms, creameries and churches. Are the Orthodox so incompetent that this is out of the question for them? Is their faith so ephemeral and superficial? ...

For our part, we are powerless against the System. The only way out is to build parallel institutions in every aspect of life. Pool our resources in our own credit unions and erect our own schools, parks, museums, coffee shops and bookstores, eventually with the goal not of overthrowing the System, but of rendering it irrelevant. Instead, the bulk of American Orthodoxy wants for the moment when Congress and the “Republicans” will come to save us. These people the world loves, and they have no enmity for it. As a result, they can no longer be considered Orthodox in any meaningful sense. To hold that the “rich tradition” of Orthodox enhances our “diversity” is to worship the world and its power over ideas.

Jumping directly into another "lifestyle" is impossible for most people, as addicted to modern junk as we are. But Americans can begin separation easily enough by shutting off their idiot-boxes, discontinuing most if not all of their magazine subscriptions, leading classical book clubs, private hunting and fishing and automotive clubs, etc., and most effective and life-changing change of all: homeschooling. Even if this is all you do, you will be making tremendous personal and spiritual gains.

It's a just a question of priorities. Do you really want to change things, or are you just another belly-aching, RedTeam-BlueTeam useful idiot?