Yesterday, I finished one of Fyodor Dostoyevsky's best works, "The Brothers Karamazov" (TBK). It was quite a long book and it took me roughly a month to finish the whole thing. For some strange reason, I had not been into reading books before, and I could hardly read Crime and Punishment (C&P), but TBK really sucked me in. Now, I don't think the book is "life changing" as people promote it to be, but it certainly had me look at some things differently. For one, I liked much of what Father Zosima had said in Book VI. He said, "Fathers and teachers, what is hell? I think it is the suffering of one who can no longer love." But what did Dostoyevsky define as love? Well, it's vague of what it is in the novel. But, I think we can find the closest definition to it in Book V, when Ivan told Alexey of the Grand Inquisitor. The Grand Inquisitor is a story of Jesus, who had come back to Earth in 15th century Seville, Spain. There, He had performed miracles and continued to love the people when the inquisitor noticed Him, and ordered Him to be captured and imprisoned. The Grand Inquisitor then angrily berates Jesus for coming back and threatens to burn Jesus as a heretic, because to the Inquisitor, the church had been doing all the dirty work and been controlling the people not out of any authoritarian belief (well, a little bit) but because according to the Inquisitor, people can't stand having freedom and want their bread. The Inquisitor asks why Jesus hadn't accepted Satan's temptations back then in Matthew 4, as if He did, people could have what they wanted and world peace would be achieved by tomorrow, and continues at Jesus by expressing his frustration as to why Jesus chose to free mankind instead of making them loyal to Him and establishing order. Here, the Inquisitor is projecting his own view of "love" onto Jesus and is angry as to why Jesus had done what he did and that the Inquisitor, in his own eyes, is actually benefitting humanity by making them obedient and giving people their bread. The Inquisitor believes that mankind cannot bear freedom and they MUST have some sort of overlord watching them, because without an overlord, they will "rebel" and destroy things, but they can't bear to rebel and will soon regret their insurrection. The Inquisitor believes that it is better to bring heaven down onto earth, rather than let people ascend to heaven. And with this comes his twisted philosophy of his "love" for humanity, which is actually power. He will let people "sin", and tells the people that the church shall bear responsibility for their sins, as long as they are loyal to the church and consider them their superiors. And that they will be happy, each and every single person except for the rulers (wait, doesn't this sound familiar?). At the end of his schpeel, The Inquisitor awaits a response from Jesus. He expects Jesus to come back at him, to berate him back or to say "I can love humanity better than YOU can, I am the Son of God afterall!" But, Jesus says nothing and does nothing, except for coming up to the old Inquisitor and kissing him on his lips. The Inquisitor is taken aback, for he had never expected such a reaction. And, mind you, Jesus kissed him not to prove a point either, but because He loves the inquisitor, just as He loves everyone else. The Inquisitor then opens the cell gate, and tells Jesus to never come back. The kiss rattles the old inquisitor's philosophy, and remains in his heart for a bit, but nonetheless the inquisitor's mind is not changed, and he sticks to his will to power. Well, how does that story relate to "love"? Well, despite the Inquisitor's plans for power and his angry reproach at Jesus, Jesus nevertheless loves him anyways. Because Jesus looks past that and sees the Inquisitor as a soul worthy of saving, as to Him all souls are worthy of being saved. Dostoyevsky believed that love is an action or experience rather than a "belief" or an expression, even. To love someone is to embrace them despite their flaws. It is an action which is contrary to judgement. Instead of judging the inquisitor, Jesus loved him, despite the Inquisitor's plans against Him, and treated the inquisitor with kindness and thought, because He loved him. However, all of us on this world are not Jesus, we are normal people, and we have flaws, one of which is the flaw of over-judgement. I myself personally believe that judgement is right in some cases, but I have seen too much of people shunning others because they are different or not understood. (Now, if they believe that, for example, deliberately hurting innocents is okay, that is a different story and they are very much worthy of being judged, and hopefully they can make things right and turn away from their evil). Welp, I don't want to explain the whole book though, but it's a good read even though old-time Russian authors like Dostoyevsky often get into minute details to the point where it could bore you. But, power through the book and maybe it could teach you a thing or two on how to view others. And I think the story of the Grand Inquisitor holds true to this day firmly, because you and I see all the time, people projecting their idealist nonsense onto others and convincing themselves that their idealism is the right way to rule their country or the world, but without stopping to think of other people's experiences and thoughts. And, to someone who believes in an ideal world: If you claim to love everyone and humanity, can you love your neighbor? Or better yet, can you love someone who thinks differently? Who has different opinions? And with this I bring an end to today's blog, as it is quite long already, and it about 50 minutes to midnight, as I am typing this, and I have an exam the day after. Wish me luck!