Alexander Solzhenitsyn Takes On The Progressives
The Federalist,
by
Louis Markos
Original Article
Posted By: thekidsmom66,
1/30/2021 8:10:16 AM
If there is one thing that 2020 has taught me, it is that the real political and cultural divide in our country is not between Republicans and Democrats, or even conservatives and liberals, but between traditionalists and progressives.
At the core of progressivism is not the optimistic American belief that things are improving and that our children can live better lives than we did, but the belief that man is a perfectible product of evolutionary forces. Rather than being made in God’s image and then fallen, progressives believe we must throw off the shackles and prejudices of the past in order to move forward to build utopia.
Reply 1 - Posted by:
IdahoSky 1/30/2021 8:39:43 AM (No. 679078)
Excellent piece.
Must Read.
21 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
spacer 1/30/2021 8:40:28 AM (No. 679081)
I remember reading about the perfect man utopia back in about 1963. A guy named Karl wrote about it in thee 1800s and a guy named Lenin actually put it in motion around 1917. I have a couple of books on it, I'll send them to Louie.
12 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
sanspeur 1/30/2021 8:41:33 AM (No. 679084)
what so many think expressed beautifully, it’s sad truth puts words to what we have observed
17 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
ThreeBadCats3 1/30/2021 8:45:58 AM (No. 679089)
It is difficult to comprehend Solzhenitsyn, because he was so much more brilliant than most of us. He was a hero for awhile after exposing the Soviet Union, in contrast to Russia, in “The Gulag Archipelago”, then banished to a life of solitude and writing in Vermont before returning home to Russia. The present political direction is toward socialism, more accurately communism. Our current president is being directed to promote that trend, although he has no idea what he is doing. Our recently displaced President understood too clearly, therefore had to be removed. For people who have attempted to understand this great writer, “Between Two Millstones” can be clarifying.
16 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
spacer 1/30/2021 8:46:43 AM (No. 679090)
Ahem...disregard my first post. Further reading of the articles should be a requirement before spouting off. Maybe an edit feature would help us quick draws.
4 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
thekidsmom66 1/30/2021 9:04:53 AM (No. 679105)
#5....lol...yes, I wish we did have an edit function here for many reasons (including spelling errors, omissions, etc, caught AFTER submitting posts!). That said, I'm glad you made your second post, as when I read your first, I was curious about your reaction! I was thinking that I must have really misunderstood something in the article! Ha! :)
4 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
Highlander 1/30/2021 9:16:57 AM (No. 679122)
I read everything of Solzhenitsyn since ‘68. I admired his bravery against the Soviet communist behemoth and was relieved he was exiled rather than imprisoned or executed. I saw him interviewed on TV shortly after. His quick and clear thinking was obvious to me in spite of him not knowing English. I compare him to Victor Davis Hansen and Jordan Peterson.
16 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
The Remnants 1/30/2021 9:23:56 AM (No. 679131)
#1 I agree, and for me I re-read. I don't get everything the first time.
10 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
Gallo3 1/30/2021 10:04:36 AM (No. 679178)
In his Harvard speech, Solzhenitsyn references the brilliant Soviet mathematician Igor Shafarevich's devastating and irrefutable critique 'The Socialist Phenomenon'.
Solzhenitsyn claimed that this critique severed the lies that form the foundation of Socialism, and that it was only a matter of time before the Soviet Socialist system would collapse, and that the leading force in Russia for renewal would be the Orthodox Church.
This was in 1978. Pointy-headed academics and media types scoffed worldwide. Took a little over ten years for AS' prediction to take place.
9 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
seamusm 1/30/2021 10:14:01 AM (No. 679187)
The arrogance of progressives dooms them to ignore history and repeat all the sins of the past in a predictable manner. It has beenn said that there is nothing new under the sun - it is for damn sure that there are no new sins.
8 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
Krause 1/30/2021 10:37:31 AM (No. 679206)
I disagree that progressives try to 'perfect' people. The dems have been crying about social and financial inequality for a long time, but they never make any 'progress.' They're too involved in perfecting the earth, where they make little, if any, progress. There real goals are the gaining of power, and keeping it, to work on their hairbrained schemes. Does killing 11,000 jobs and getting boys to play on girls teams and use girls bathrooms help anybody?. There is ample evidence that dems make things worse.
13 people like this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
planetgeo 1/30/2021 10:44:27 AM (No. 679213)
Brief summary: America's progressives are driven by mass utopian ideology, which accepts no alternate views, and will lie to enforce them, even incarcerating and possibly killing mass numbers of non-believers in the process. They aspire to turn the United States into the Soviet Union.
How do I know and why do I fully understand Solzhenitsyn? Because like him, I fled from there to the United States. We aren't telling you, we are warning you.
20 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
Avikingman 1/30/2021 12:14:30 PM (No. 679319)
In addition to Solzhenitsyn's marvelous works, I would add 'The Case for Democracy - The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny and Terror" by Natan Sharansky. Also a must read.
5 people like this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
MindMadeUp 1/30/2021 12:28:28 PM (No. 679334)
The fundamental conflict is between those who believe in a society that protects religious/spiritual freedom and those who wish to impose their own view of reality on everyone else.
4 people like this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
JHHolliday 1/30/2021 12:35:46 PM (No. 679343)
Great piece. This one goes into my 'save' file. Whenever I find a good article like this I copy and paste it into my word processor then save it to a dated file so I can re-read or forward it.
5 people like this.
Reply 16 - Posted by:
caljeepgirl 1/30/2021 4:53:30 PM (No. 679533)
Yes! Thank you. I've been characterizing Trump as a 'traditionalist' to anyone who would listen, ever since he appeared on the horizon.
3 people like this.
Reply 17 - Posted by:
DVC 1/31/2021 12:53:45 AM (No. 679756)
FTA:
“It is wrong to think of utopias as harmless dreams,” he warns. “Combined with the idea of progress, utopian thought is a dream that motivates action. It establishes a goal so lofty that it cannot be reached. The more ideal it becomes, the greater the stubbornness with which it is pursued. There comes a time when blood is spilled. Oceans of blood.”
Yes, this is the truth.
I had a sort of random intersection with a portion of Solzhenitsyn's life when working in Russia. There is a closed city surrounded by barbed wire in two concentric rings, where no one is permitted in or out without official purpose. I had an official purpose several times, and spent a week there a couple of times. Tightest possible security every where, always followed by a 'minder' from the security services. And a block down from the small hotel where we stayed was a house with a bronze plaque out at the sidewalk. This was the place where Solzhenitsyn lived when he developed the Russian hydrogen bomb. He was back in Russia by then, after the fall of the Soviet Union.
0 people like this.
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