The West through Russian Eyes - 1978
Alexander Solzhenitsyn.
Introduction
Alexander Solzhenitsyn was a Russian political prisoner, novelist, and historian of the Soviet Union’s labor camps. Although converted to Orthodox Christianity, and often referring to God in private, Solzhenitsyn seldom alluded to Christ in his public writings or speeches. This was the case on this day June 8, 1978, when he addressed a Harvard graduating class. Nonetheless, his speech had much wisdom. In it, he expressed concern for the direction of the West. After looking at many signs of its disintegration, ranging from lack of courage in Western leaders, the media’s tendency to misinform the public, people’s fixation on material goods, and looting during blackouts (all of which he saw as “meaningful warnings”), he declared that good and evil are in a final battle for the planet and located the source of Western weakness in rationalistic humanism.
Quote
“If humanism were right in declaring that man is born to be happy, he would not be born to die. Since his body is doomed to die, his task on earth evidently must be of a more spiritual nature. It cannot be unrestrained enjoyment of everyday life. It cannot be the search for the best ways to obtain material goods and then cheerfully get the most out of them. It has to be the fulfillment of a permanent, earnest duty so that one’s life journey may become an experience of moral growth, so that one may leave life a better human being than one started it....”
Solzhenitsyn, Alexander. “A World Split Apart.” Commencement address delivered at Harvard University, June 8, 1978.