Peter Hitchens, the evangelical Christian brother of Christopher Hitchens, world renowned atheist, wrote recently about the similarities between communism and atheism, how both attempt to take the place of God for the masses.
"Soviet power had taken on the responsibilities of God, but its commandments were very different. In fact, Soviet Communism used the same language, treasured the same hopes and appealed to the same constituency as Western atheism does today.
Soviet power was the opposite of faith in God. It was faith in the greatness of humanity and in the perfectibility of human society. The atheists cannot honestly disown it."
Peter Hitchens then makes an observation about language and standing in line, two things that might seem disparate but on further observation, reveal a societies beliefs about God.
"Several features of life in Moscow made a big impact on me, accustomed as I was to the culture and good manners of a rich and stable Protestant Christian society. One was pointed out to me by a visiting exile whose grandparents had fled in the days of Lenin.
He had been brought up in America speaking pure, middle-class Russian; literary and elegant, which sounded, as he said, 'like bells'.
He told me how shocked he was to encounter the coarse, ugly, slang-infested and bureaucratic tongue now spoken in Moscow, even by educated professional people, and seen in its newspapers and on public noticeboards.
The collapse of manners could be seen when a trolleybus swung into the roadside to pick up passengers. If you were well bundled up it was reasonably easy to withstand the ruthless pushing, elbowing and fury which erupted every time the creaking, steamed-up vehicle stopped and flapped its doors open."
I had similar experiences living in China. No one stood in line. I became accustomed to being elbowed by little old ladies and young schoolboys. And the language? Communist leader Mao Tse Tung "simplified" the language in both writing and speaking. This was done in the name of increasing literacy among the peasants. It also led to a cruder way of speaking.
Manners and language say much about where we put our faith and the consequences thereof.
For more about Peter Hitchens forthcoming book, click here.