Pussy Riot - a different perspective

I suppose readers could hardly have escaped the outpouring of maudlin sympathy and overflowing emotion from many 'useful idiots' at the two-year prison sentence handed down to Russian punk rock band Pussy Riot.  However, in Russia it seems a different perspective prevails.  Taki's Magazine reports:

Western analysis of the stunt pulled in Moscow by the cretins known as Pussy Riot cannot convey the visceral rage their act has elicited from the typical Russian.

I don’t mean the typical Russian of central Moscow or St. Petersburg, but those from the endless cinderblock apartments that ring each city and fill in the rest of the largest geographic country on Earth. They are not commonly interviewed on television, and Western media hardly ever quote them. However, they do most of the nation’s working and slaving and living and dying. They also do the believing.

There are many things one does not do in a Russian Orthodox church. In many colder climes—basically all of Russia much of the year—adherents do not remove coats. Congregants remain standing throughout the ceremony. You cannot put your hands in your pockets and if you do, someone will tap you and wag his finger.

The clergy will not look at you. Their backs are to parishioners because Orthodox services honor the Almighty instead of trying to entertain those who pass through the archway. The service is not about you and it will proceed whether you are there or not.

. . .

... many Russians apparently would have felt no qualms about kicking in every last one of these girls’ teeth. This is the degree to which their stunt offends typical Russians. Few would object to the same reaction at a neo-Nazi rally at Auschwitz, a pro-Khmer Rouge carnival at a Cambodian temple, or those insufferable jackasses who denounce homosexuality at soldiers’ funerals. Some people beg to have hell beaten out of them. That they generally don’t is a true crime against humanity.

. . .

Lamentably, there was no end to the insufferable idiots spouting off about this lack of Russian liberty.

One of them was Madonna, taking reprieve from showing the ravages of time to tell the world we must respect freedom. Not freedom of religion or freedom of association evidently, but freedom to spit on others’ most sacred beliefs in a place specifically designed for them to retreat from a world which already does that with glee at every opportunity imaginable.

Another was the defiler Khodorkovsky, who ought to be disqualified from giving any statement about Christ’s sanctity. Yet when did courtesy or common sense ever convince one of his ilk to keep its mouth shut about anything? On the contrary, the Oligarch Who Didn’t Get Away felt at ease questioning the morality of a country from which he stole billions.

There were other “musicians” and intellectual lightweights who deigned to make digs at the deity. If you are ever in a committee meeting where Sting, Yoko Ono, and Madonna agree, back quietly out of the room and run until you’re out of breath.

There's more at the link.

I think the author is somewhat 'over the top' in his condemnation of Pussy Riot - as much over the top as they were to protest in a church in that fashion.  If I'd been there that day, I'd certainly have stopped their protest by grabbing them by the scruffs of their necks and physically ejecting them from the cathedral.  However, I wouldn't have brought charges against them or sought jail sentences for them.  That's only made them martyrs in the eyes of the 'useful idiots' of the world.  Nevertheless, I can't help a certain sympathy for the author's perspective.  One hopes that the young ladies (?) will learn something during their time behind bars, and not be so disrespectful of others' rights and beliefs in future.

Peter