Man, in this chapter, you can really feel Ivan's hatred for Tolstoy. As I read this, I see Ivan as true Christians and Tolstoy as the modern Church. It's a 1:1 comparision.
In this chapter, Ilyin addresses the idea of "love" as posited by Tolstoy as the ultimate expression of good. Ilyin points out that this leads to egocentric behavior and allows evil to spread.
Tolstoy and his adherents define love as a feeling of sympathetic compassion. They further define it as a feeling of objective tenderness and softness. While this sounds good in the abstract, it leads to problems. These feelings give our souls pleasure, which we then seek more of. Some seek it at all costs. Under this model, people tend to seek "love" only, and begin to avoid anything at all that might not lead to "good feelings". Some even tend to see this type of love in a situation when it is not actually there - because they love the feeling so much. This idea isn't morally sound as it distorts the clarity of our worldview and dilutes our personal character.
Ilyin defines this as moral hedonism or gravitating to only that which keeps us in a state of happiness. This desire makes us avoid anything unpleasant. We choose to "not judge" or "not assign blame", because these cause us to face unpleasantness. We dismiss it, under the Tolstoy model. People who subscribe to this (like the "Jesus is my boyfriend" crowd of the modern church) refuse to see any evil and say things like "I don't believe in evil" or "I don't think anyone can be evil". They then make excuses and shrink in the face of evil - "I wouldn't want to get involved" or "It's not my business". These are the people who just sit there when someone is attacked on the train. These are also the people who see things as they want to see them, rather than as they are - "It's not that bad" or "Nothing ever happens".
Rather than strengthening our will, this type of "love" weakens it. It makes people unwilling to acknowledge evil at all. This leads to a slide in standards, accepting worse and worse behavior from our fellow man. Ilyin poses a great question here - how could someone like that ever stand up in the face of evil when the moment arrives? The weakness of their will prevents it.
This phenomenon leads to the opposite of love. By refusing to engage in an attack on another person, especially a loved one, they end up denying the victim of "love". The prefer instead to justify not getting involved - "It's none of my business" or "There was nothing I could do". The worst of these people justify their inaction by saying things like "It was God's will."
The focus on experiencing only good things in their own lives leads to egocentrism. Everyone else around them fades to the background as they seek the pleasure of "love" - we now call this the "Main Character Syndrome". Some even justify some suffering as a good leading to growth. Sure, some suffering is good, but not at the hands of actual evil. There is enough suffering in trying to get by in the modern world. They also say things "leave others to themselves", preferring instead to focus only on their own pleasure and "love".
Even in the case of defending loved ones, the Church, or even the State, these people will chatter online, and shout slogans, but will ALWAYS stop short at physical violence. This is because of their refusal to be seen as even remotely imperfect or amoral. Their image becomes more important that the actual issues at hand (insert "at least we never got violent like them" meme here). These people are all over Facebook and X, talking tough, but then explaining all the reasons they can't do more ("I'm not going to get arrested/lose my job"). At the point of physical defense, the "love" of these people is shown to be false - they would prefer that they (or their loved ones/church/nation) die, rather than be seen as "sinning" or less than perfect. This proves that they don't actually love anything but their image and the feelings of "love".
TW Note: In order to violently defend our friends, family, Church, or Nation, we are required to ACTUALLY love these things in a selfless and heroic way. It also requires urgency.
This type of "love", rather than unifying us, divides us. In order to join with others for mutual defense, you have to love something more than yourself or your image. You have to love something bigger than you, and join like-minded people in standing up for it.
Thanks to you all for joining this study. Share your thoughts below.
