Alexander Solzhenitsyn: Difference between revisions

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 ==Quotes==
-Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn: a contradictory life (and famous quotes)
+[https://dialektika.org/en/2018/12/10/alexander-solzhenitsyn-quotes-books/ Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn: a contradictory life (and famous quotes)]
+“Western democracy is going through a serious crisis.”
+Despite being regarded as one of the symbols of the condemnation of Stalinist totalitarianism, there is also in the vast work of Solzhenitsyn moments of criticism against Western democracy.
+There is also his famous speech at Harvard on June 8, 1978. There he defines his ideas on the development of the West about culture, philosophy, politics and specific cases such as the so-called Third World:
+"There is this belief that all those other worlds are only being temporarily prevented (by wicked governments or by heavy crises or by their barbarity and incomprehension) from taking the way of Western pluralistic democracy and from adopting the Western way of life. Countries are judged on the merit of their progress in this direction. However, it is a conception, which develops out of Western incomprehension of the essence of other worlds, out of the mistake of measuring them all with a Western yardstick. The real picture of our planet’s development is quite different…"
+"It is increasingly less likely that the Western lifestyle will become the model to follow. There are important warnings from history for a society threatened with death."
+In that speech [at Harvard], he criticizes the two central contending systems during the Cold War: Communism and Western Capitalism. His argument centers on what he calls “despiritualized and irreligious humanistic consciousness.” The problem, according to Solzhenitsyn, lies in the predominance of these forces at the base of all modern societies.
+"To such consciousness, man is the touchstone in judging everything on earth — imperfect man, who is never free of pride, self-interest, envy, vanity, and dozens of other defects. We are now experiencing the consequences of mistakes which had not been noticed at the beginning of the journey. On the way from the Renaissance to our days, we have enriched our experience, but we have lost the concept of a Supreme Complete Entity which used to restrain our passions and our irresponsibility."
 [[Category:Alexander Solzhenitsyn]]