An Observation from Solzhenitsyn's Warning to the West

Photo: Gary Firstenberg

The following was penned in the mid-Seventies. In what way was this visionary Nobel Prize-winning author right on and in what ways off the mark? How much of this description would be accurate for today? 

Russia Before the Revolution: Today, the West Follows in Her Ways.

"And what we see is always the same as it was then: adults deferring to the opinions of their children; the younger generation carried away by shallow, worthless ideas; professors scared of being unfashionable; journalists refusing to take responsibility for the words they squander so easily; universal sympathy for revolutionary extremists; people with serious objections unable or unwilling to voice them; the majority passively obsessed with a feeling of doom; feeble governments; societies whose defensive reactions have become paralyzed; spiritual confusion leading to political upheaval."

A. Solzhenitsyn--Warning to the West, p. 130

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Related Links

Remembering Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn: A Profile in Courage

Solzhenitsyn Indictment of the West Still Stands

Celebrating Existence

We are here. For a short period of time we pass through the material world. It is up to us where we go, what we do.

One way I celebrate life is to create. The creative process has many facets. One facet is the element of emergence. Emergence might occur while you are actively doing, or it may happen when you have stopped doing. I can begin a drawing without knowing where it will go, but all throughout I am pensively watching to see when the real idea will emerge.

Many times, the idea will emerge at the moment of waking, as if the subconscious has been waiting for me to awaken so it can upload the new ideas it has processed during the night. Occasionally the upload of an idea is accompanied by a great adrenaline rush, and I am projected into the new day.

My lists grow in reaction to inputs from both without and within. Bills that need to be paid, poetry that needs expression, and doodles that long to feel significant.

At the end of each day, most of us have left a few more fingerprints on the world that surrounds us. A creative way of saying thank you, an original way of giving encouragement, an unusual anecdote that splashes a new insight into the minds of its hearers… these are all ways in which we can add sunshine to the dreary world and leave our personal marks in time.

Ultimately, for me, there are simply too many projects, too many ideas, and not enough time, but I’m doing the best I can. I hope you are, too, creating and celebrating existence.

Isn’t it wonderful?

Anarchy and Revolution

E.L. Doctorow's Welcome to Hard Times is a vivid portrait of the early days of our wild west, when lawmen were scarce and unbridled lawlessness had its way. A small town is ravaged, and in the end ravaged again. The evil is real as is the cowardice, fear and grief.

I mention the book because of the images it paints. Set in the Old West, it could easily be a snapshot of a village in Rwanda, or Paris during its reign of terror. When law and order break down, the grim result is frightening.

Yet there are some who bought this scenario as a dream. Tear down the system and something better will emerge in its place. How that "something better" emerges is unexplained. But what is clear is that no one wants to be caught up in the midst of this kind of horror. And the more we have at stake -- homes, families -- the more we realize how utterly devastating a cultural breakdown will be. Who wants to see a spouse or child get abused, raped or tortured, to see all of one's personal belongings trashed and burned?

For this reason most people accept the slow erosion of freedoms, the increased taxation, the higher cost of living. What are our alternatives? Gratitude is one of the first things on my lips, for the family I was born into and the security I felt growing up, for a country with so much freedom within a structure of law. I have not been losing sleep over an unsettling fear that our family is endangered by marauding bands of bad men. (As soon as I write this, however, I wonder whether this is the case for some people in other parts of our nation... such as sections of South Chicago or L.A. or Philadelphia.)

We have many problems in our country, but the solution is not a teardown. Riots in the streets will not get us what we want. The feeling of powerlessness is strong out there. Making ends meet is a challenge for many and it is difficult to understand the forces behind the economic pressures most people experience. Also there is that feeling that we can't make much of a difference as we see civility deteriorating around us.

But the truth is contrary. The call to revolution should be a call for revolution within. Eliminate your inner anarchy, and you will be better suited to impact the community, and larger world, around you.

We really aren't powerless. Our future is in our hands.