Is it possible or impossible to
transmit the experience of those who have suffered to those who have yet to
suffer? Can one part of humanity learn
from the bitter experience of another or can it not? Is it possible or impossible to warn someone
of danger?
-Alexander
Solzhenitsyn, Warning to the West
The above words express much of the frustration Solzhenitsyn
must have felt when he came to America after his expulsion from the Soviet
Union in 1974. The above quote is from a
speech given to leaders of the AFL-CIO in New York on July 9, 1975, during
which he tried to warn this group of American workers and leaders of the
dangers inherent in Communism and Socialism.
The sad thing, the similarly frustrating thing, is that most
of Solzhenitsyn’s words and warnings ring true as even more relevant
today. The frightening thing is that
once again no one is really hearing the words, perhaps because without having
experienced what is being warned of one cannot hear the warning.
And yet, there are those perhaps fools who will keep
shouting the warning to anyone who will listen, hoping perhaps beyond hope that
someone will hear at least a small whisper, that someone will awake and they
will awake others and perhaps the impending danger can be avoided. We will see.
In the meantime, I would like to go through some of the key
statements from this particular Solzhenitsyn speech with notes on how they
reflect very clearly what is happening in America today. It is not possible to read them without
recognizing things we see all around us.
[Notes. The full text
of this speech can be found, collected with other of his speeches in the book
Warning to the West by Alexander Solzhenitsyn, 1976. It can also be found in the July-August 1975 edition
of the AFL-CIO Free Trade Union News beginning at page 17, and available at
this LINK. The page numbers to which I refer below are pages of the
speech in the book Warning to the West. While
I generally use the term “Communism” as did Solzhenitsyn in his speech, one
should understand that the basic concepts warned of are also aspects of Socialism
and Democratic Socialism.]
“The whole world can read, everyone
is literate, yet somehow no one wants to understand. Humanity acts as if it does not understand
what Communism is, as if it does not want to understand, is not capable of
understanding.” (p. 54)
I don’t know about you, but that to me sounds like most of
the people around me in this country. We
have around 1/3 of our young people thinking Socialism/Communism is a great system. We have leaders and politicians pushing a big
government Socialist agenda and no one even seems to bat an eye. Perhaps no one wants to know because it is
too disconcerting; it is easier just to go about enjoying one’s daily life
without paying attention to what is going on around one. Or, perhaps as Solzhenitsyn suggests, “the
essence of Communism is quite beyond the limits of human understanding.”
What is the “essence” of Communism? Solzhenitsyn reminds us that it never changes.
(p. 55) Sure, while during the Soviet era it was the proletariat vs. the
bourgeoisie and today those labels have been replaced with the appropriate identity
group labels of the day, the basic rhetoric has not changed. Communism as well as socialism assert that
once the evil group has been overthrown, “the most happy and radiant society
will then arise.” But no Communist
leaders ever describe concretely what that new society will be like.
If today’s Left successfully put into place their many
social justice and new world order programs, do you have any idea what the new
society that they wish to create will look like? Will the promises of a rosy new world of
peace, joy, and happiness be sustainable, or will it look more like the many
other failed Communist and Socialist regimes with negligible resources, corrupt
and selfish leaders, starving and unhappy populace? Perhaps it will look a bit like the Cuba of
today that the people who have actually suffered and are suffering this brave
new world are risking their very lives to protest against.
“Marxism has always opposed
freedom.” (p. 57) “Communism is anti-humanity.” (p. 59)
According to Solzhenitsyn Communism reduces all the
complexities of human nature to “crude economic processes.” Man is “reduced to matter.” Solzhenitsyn
lays out one way in which this is successfully accomplished: the destruction of traditional concepts of
morality, good, and evil. These concepts
were once seen as absolutes, but Communism considers morality to be relative
and a class matter.
“Depending upon circumstances and the political situation,
any act, including murder, even the killing of hundreds of thousands, could be
good or could be bad. It all depends
upon class ideology. (p. 58)
Communism has been highly successful in spreading the
concept of situation ethics and the relativity of good and evil. Indeed, people who profess absolutist
concepts of good and evil are often seen as some character from the dark ages;
the concepts are seen as old-fashioned and laughable.
Why is it OK for BLM to conduct violent protests but largely
peaceful protests from the political right are condemned? Why do some large cities excuse shop-lifting
if done by certain identity groups or excuse theft and violence if it was
because the individual “needed” what was stolen? Why are acts by the “victim” identity groups
against the “victimizer” identity groups excused? Why do the laws apply to some and not
others? These are questions asked in
this country every day, and yet the real answers, the underlying source of the
destruction of moral standards, are often ignored.
“And who defines this ideology?” Who determines when
something is wrong or right when there is no clear or absolute standard? In America today it seems to be a combination
of Leftist political leaders, big corporations, and media. It is not the people.
As Solzhenitsyn notes, the problem is that if we are
deprived of the basic concepts of good and evil, deprived of standards of
conduct that apply to all, nothing but the manipulation of one another is left. And that is just fine with the Communists because they will take the power and do that manipulation while the rest of us
“will sink to the status of animals.” (p. 58)
We seem to have a good cadre of Leftist leaders who are more than
willing, indeed eager, to take all power and become our manipulators.
“But what is amazing is that apart
from all its writings, Communism has offered a multitude of examples for modern
man to see.” (p. 59)
Solzhenitsyn gives numerous examples of the horrors of
Communism taken from the time of his speech.
We can find equally timely ones today.
In China there are the Uyghur internment and forced labor camps that
also likely include torture and death. Actually,
had anyone noticed, China was already becoming an example in 1975: “China is characterized
by all the same [Communist] traits: massive compulsory labor which is not paid
in accordance with its value; work on holidays; forced living in communes; and
the incessant dinning of slogans and dogmas that abolish the human essence and
deny all individuality to man.” (p. 64)
But we also have others.
Venezuela comes to mind: the socialist/communist
country that promised a great society to its people but that has collapsed to
the detriment of its populace. North
Korea is another whose horrors are only partially known. We have other socialist/communist
authoritarian regimes that have all begun with a promise of some wonderful new
world and which are in some form just the opposite for their people. And we have Cuba whose people are right now
trying to rise up against the horrors of Communism but who might just as likely
be destroyed like any other group in Communism’s history who dared to speak out
against its social order.
Yet we have people that ignore these examples. The Administration downplays the Cuban
revolt, ignoring the fact that the essence of the people’s complaint is
Communism. We do not stand up to the
treatment of the Uyghurs in China. We
turn a blind eye to the many Socialist and Communist atrocities around the
world. Yes, it is amazing that the
examples are there, but too many choose not to see.
“All the apparent differences among
the Communist Parties of the world are imaginary. All are united on one point: your social order must be destroyed.”
(pp.
64-5)
And isn’t that just what our progressive Left, our
Democratic Socialists, our Communists in this country are attempting to do with
their many social justice and other policies and initiatives, their CRT, their
destruction and erasure of history, their cancelling of unwelcome voices? Isn’t
the essence of their many policies an attempt to destroy our social order? And yet no one seems to notice. Solzhenitsyn does not find it surprising that
the world does not understand this.
“Even the socialists, who are the closest to Communists, do not
understand it.” Humanity cannot grasp
the evil until they have experienced it themselves and by that time it is too
late because they are dead.
“All of the Communist Parties, upon
attaining power, have become completely merciless. But at the stage before they achieve power,
it is necessary to use disguises.” (p. 66)
We are bombarded with social justice. Equity.
The ideal classless society. The
Left and their policies will fix everything for us. The current Administration is well on its
way. The word “Communism” is not
used. Sometimes we hear “democratic
Socialism” with the emphasis on the word “democratic.” These are disguises that do not cover the truth
of what we are facing. But what are all
these fine sounding things but the disguises of Communism. The classless society is one in which every
voice is suppressed by those in power. (p. 69)
Suppression of speech is becoming pretty well installed in
this country as the Administration, the Left, MSM, and Big Tech/Social Media all
join hands to suppress voices that they do not like. People accept it in the name of some sort of civility. But it
is nothing more than the Communist (and socialist) bait and switch. The goal, the ideology of Communism remains
the same: “to destroy your system, to destroy the way of life known in the
West.” (p. 70) And to suppress any and all voices that do not speak the party
line.
So many Americans buy into the beauteous sounding establishment
of a new world order of peace and prosperity for all. When we live in a country that, while imperfect,
is indeed free and aspires to the highest goals of humanity, a country that is
prosperous and generous, it is hard to imagine that everyone would not be
behind a brave new world that looked like a perfected America. Yet in reality, that brave new world requires
totalitarianism and totalitarianism is the antithesis of America; it is the
sort of world to which the disguises of Communism will lead us.
“We are approaching a major turning
point in world history, in the history of civilization. . . . It is a juncture
at which settled concepts suddenly become hazy, lose their precise contours, at
which our familiar and commonly used words lose their meaning. . . . [T]he
hierarchy of values which we have venerated, and which we use to determine what
is important to us and what causes our hearts to beat is starting to rock and
may collapse.” (p. 79)
Solzhenitsyn saw it coming in the 1970s. It is here now.
Solzhenitsyn saw two crises occurring simultaneously: one political, one spiritual. He noted that the entire world would have to
face these crises but that it was America that would have to bear the burden of
fighting against them.
“Your [America’s] leaders will need profound intuition,
spiritual foresight, high qualities of mind and soul.” (p. 80) Oh, if only that
were true, if only that were the description of our leaders today. We do not have such leaders. They either do not see the problem, or ignore
it, or are part of it. The current
Administration, essentially governed by the Left, has already seemingly signed
onto the Communist agenda, whether they understand what they are doing or not.
Our political leaders, our media, our entertainment, our
denial of what is going on around us, our willingness to accept without thought
what we are told and do without thought what the Left desires, perhaps because
we cannot see the dangers or perhaps because we do not want to, all of these
things are leading us to disaster. And yet, “a concentration of world evil is
taking place, full of hatred for humanity.
It is fully determined to destroy your society.” (p. 82)
Solzhenitsyn notes that those born in Communist countries
are born slaves. Some are currently
striving for freedom. But we, born in
the USA, are born free. So why, in the
words of Solzhenitsyn, would we let ourselves become slaves? Why do we help those who would become our
slaveowners? (p. 84)
The why is stated at the start of this essay. It seems that for those who live in a country
where one can live a free and independent life, the dangers seem
imaginary. It is impossible to warn someone
of the danger. It is hard to ask someone
to be vigilant when the danger to them seems unreal. Solzhenitsyn has given us a heads up of what
is to come – advice from one who knows and has experienced evil given to us who have
not. Yet, if the free and independent
people of this country do not wake up, do not man the watchtowers, it will be too
late for vigilance, too late for warnings from those who know what the Left,
the Socialists, the Communists are truly seeking and what havoc they will wrest
upon us and our world. It is time that we listen and see what is really going on.
