Solzhenitsyn’s Rosary (2016)
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Solzhenitsyn’s Rosary (2016)
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Re: Solzhenitsyn’s Rosary (2016)
#2The Gulag Archipelago is one of those pieces I wish everyone would read. These days the lessons of socialism and communism are lost on a younger generation that seems blind to what Marxism led to, and how much suffering and death it caused.
The ideologies behind these government systems require authoritarianism, from the state and the mob. It requires a single ideology to win with everything else stamped out, and this is explicitly mentioned in foundational Marxist works. Ultimately that adherence to a singular ideology, with aggressive suppression of all others, leads to every subsequent horror.
https://academyofideas.com/2017/04/gulag-archipelago-aleksan...
Here's a link to the abridged version: https://www.amazon.com/Archipelago-Peterson-introduction-Ale...
But if you want the full experience, look up the three-volume originals.
Re: Solzhenitsyn’s Rosary (2016)
#3In ancient Greece papyrus was roughly worth its weight in silver. For a long time writing was so onerous that people just didn't do it.
The shared civilization behind ancient Greece and ancient Northern India and ancient Britain had a system of oral-formulaic poetry, wherein descriptions are full of stock phrases like "wine-dark sea" or "rosy-fingered Dawn", like in today's "My name is X and I'm here to say" in more recent oral poetic forms.
Re: Solzhenitsyn’s Rosary (2016)
#4The Gulag Archipelago is one of those pieces I wish everyone would read. These days the lessons of socialism and communism are lost on a younger generation that seems blind to what Marxism led to, and how much suffering and death it caused. The ideologies behind these government systems require authoritarianism, from the state and the mob. It requires a single ideology to win with everything else stamped out, and thi…
I read a big chunk of the Gulag Archipelago in Russian last year and it was, to my surprise, one of the most beautiful things I'd ever read. It reads like poetry, especially the beginning. Now I am thinking: maybe he recited and memorized all those passages to himself and used the verse-like structure to aid memorization.
In the Gulag Archipelago Solzhenitsyn cites something that has really stuck with me:
> Martin Latsis, writing for the newspaper Red Terror, November 1, 1918: “We are not fighting against single individuals. We are exterminating the bourgeoisie as a class. It is not necessary during the interrogation to look for evidence proving that the accused opposed the Soviets by word or action. The first question you should ask him is what class does he belong to, what is his origin, his education and his profession. These are the questions that will determine the fate of the accused. Such is the sense and essence of red terror.”
A haunting quote, you would think. The thing is, I'm not sure that our younger generation would learn much from reading Solzhenitsyn, or even the above quote. I think even Solzhenitsyn can't teach you that you cannot take things like "equality" at face value. That maybe there are deeper realities lurking beneath the surface?
I'll leave it to Dylan:
> A self-ordained professor's tongue / Too serious to fool/ Spouted out that liberty / Is just equality in school / "Equality," I spoke their word / As if a wedding vow / Ah, but I was so much older then / I'm younger than that now.
Re: Solzhenitsyn’s Rosary (2016)
#5The Gulag Archipelago is one of those pieces I wish everyone would read. These days the lessons of socialism and communism are lost on a younger generation that seems blind to what Marxism led to, and how much suffering and death it caused. The ideologies behind these government systems require authoritarianism, from the state and the mob. It requires a single ideology to win with everything else stamped out, and thi…
Solzhenitsyn's name has come up several times in various things I've read this month. I don't think it's a coincidence.
I purchased his book off Amazon a few weeks ago, thinking it wouldn't be long until they started delisting books. Now all this nonsense with Dr. Seuss.
One quote, loosely paraphrased from another book I'm struggling to finish -- an interview with survivors of post WW2 totalitarianism. One of them was incredibly disillusioned, and told the author not to bother with the interview, as no one would be ready to believe it was happening until it was too late.
Edit: I am speaking very loosely here. Yes, I know the government isn't censoring Dr. Seuss. Yes, I know the estate has the right to cease publishing for any reason. Yes, I know Amazon did not delist Dr. Seuss, it was eBay. But I was not referring to any of these things, and I did not intend to.
My statement was intended to be this: I expect Amazon to delist books, and am purchasing physical copies. What is happening now with Dr. Seuss is in the category of things that drove my worried purchases.
Rarely will I say this, as I value being precise with what I'm saying. If your response is, "But @bjt2n3904, the government isn't censoring this" you are both technically correct, and missing the forest for the trees.
Re: Solzhenitsyn’s Rosary (2016)
#6Memorization is largely vilified in American schooling, and for good reason. But I think if not abused, it is an excellent form of (self-) learning not at all devoid of near meditative qualities. There something special about committing things to memory, especially verses.
Re: Solzhenitsyn’s Rosary (2016)
#7The Gulag Archipelago is one of those pieces I wish everyone would read. These days the lessons of socialism and communism are lost on a younger generation that seems blind to what Marxism led to, and how much suffering and death it caused. The ideologies behind these government systems require authoritarianism, from the state and the mob. It requires a single ideology to win with everything else stamped out, and thi…
The downvotes you’re receiving would seem to confirm your hypothesis. :)
Re: Solzhenitsyn’s Rosary (2016)
#8The Gulag Archipelago is one of those pieces I wish everyone would read. These days the lessons of socialism and communism are lost on a younger generation that seems blind to what Marxism led to, and how much suffering and death it caused. The ideologies behind these government systems require authoritarianism, from the state and the mob. It requires a single ideology to win with everything else stamped out, and thi…
Solzhenitsyn's name has come up several times in various things I've read this month. I don't think it's a coincidence. I purchased his book off Amazon a few weeks ago, thinking it wouldn't be long until they started delisting books. Now all this nonsense with Dr. Seuss. One quote, loosely paraphrased from another book I'm struggling to finish -- an interview with survivors of post WW2 totalitarianism. One of them wa…
> I purchased his book off Amazon a few weeks ago, thinking it wouldn't be long until they started delisting books. Now all this nonsense with Dr. Seuss.
Except it was the copyright holder of the Dr. Seuss books that decided to withdraw these books. Not the government or sellers like Amazon. It's more of an argument for reducing the length of copyright in the US rather than some sort of ominous supression of free speech.
Re: Solzhenitsyn’s Rosary (2016)
#9The Gulag Archipelago is one of those pieces I wish everyone would read. These days the lessons of socialism and communism are lost on a younger generation that seems blind to what Marxism led to, and how much suffering and death it caused. The ideologies behind these government systems require authoritarianism, from the state and the mob. It requires a single ideology to win with everything else stamped out, and thi…
You're commenting as if Capitalism and Imperialism are squeaky clean, which is incredibly far from the truth. Just to give a little more context, Solzhenitsyn was a Fascist who supported the Germans during WWII and openly supported Franco in Spain. He was also a notorious anti-semite even at a time when anti-semitism was punishable by death in Soviet Russia. I've read Gulag Archipelago and he's a pretty good writer, but it should not be considered a work of non-fiction.
A quote from an interview with his wife:
"Natalya Reshetovskaya, a Russian chemist who twice married the dissident writer Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn, and questioned the famous account he gave of Stalin's prison camps in ''The Gulag Archipelago,'' died in Moscow on May 28. She was 84.
In her 1974 memoir, ''Sanya: My Life with Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn'' (Bobbs-Merrill), she wrote that she was ''perplexed'' that the West had accepted ''The Gulag Archipelago'' as ''the solemn, ultimate truth,'' saying its significance had been ''overestimated and wrongly appraised.''
Pointing out that the book's subtitle is ''An Experiment in Literary Investigation,'' she said that her husband did not regard the work as ''historical research, or scientific research.'' She contended that it was, rather, a collection of ''camp folklore,'' containing ''raw material'' which her husband was planning to use in his future productions.
He began a series of love affairs with younger women and when Miss Reshetovskaya protested, she wrote that he replied: ''I have to describe lots of women in my novels. You don't expect me to find my heroines at the dinner table, do you ?''
He eventually left her for Natalya Svetlova, a young mathematician.
https://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/06/world/natalya-reshetovska...
He has a "on Russians and the jews" bit on his wiki. Ridiculous anti-semite the west used as a poster boy for the horrors of the gulag.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleksandr_Solzhenitsyn#On_Russ...
What is a gulag? It's a penal colony or a labor camp or a prison.
The US today houses more prisoners for slave labor as a percentage of it's population than the Soviet Union at the height of the gulag period, modern day Russia, Iran or China.
Re: Solzhenitsyn’s Rosary (2016)
#10The Gulag Archipelago is one of those pieces I wish everyone would read. These days the lessons of socialism and communism are lost on a younger generation that seems blind to what Marxism led to, and how much suffering and death it caused. The ideologies behind these government systems require authoritarianism, from the state and the mob. It requires a single ideology to win with everything else stamped out, and thi…
You're commenting as if Capitalism and Imperialism are squeaky clean, which is incredibly far from the truth. Just to give a little more context, Solzhenitsyn was a Fascist who supported the Germans during WWII and openly supported Franco in Spain. He was also a notorious anti-semite even at a time when anti-semitism was punishable by death in Soviet Russia. I've read Gulag Archipelago and he's a pretty good writer,…
> What is a gulag? It's a penal colony or a labor camp or a prison.
If only. Never thought I would see gulag apologism, but I am not surprised.
I guess https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varlam_Shalamov was a facist anti-semite, too.
PS. Nice touch with the whattaboutism.
PSS. As a Jew I just love when antisemitism is invoked in character assassinations. Makes me feel loved, valued and most all: protected! ;)