42 Years Ago Today: Solzhenitsyn's Harvard Speech, a Prophecy for Our Troubled Age

Rorate Caeli ^ | 6/8/20

[marshmallow]

The western world is in upheaval, a devilish revolutionary fever brought about by an extreme "progressivism" gone awry, the culture of "wokeness", that erupts in rage at the end of the illegitimate lockdowns imposed by various governments.

Exactly 42 years ago today, on June 8, 1978, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn traveled the New England roads from his place of refuge in Vermont to the oldest institution of higher education in the United States, Harvard University, where he delivered the keynote Commencement Address for that year. It was his first major public address in America since taking refuge in the country three years earlier.

It has justifiably become perhaps the most famous commencement speech ever delivered. It was also a haunting prophecy of the age in which we are currently living.

We call your attention in particular to these very important prophetic observations delivered on that day:

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[On Lack of Moral Courage:]

Maybe the most striking feature which an outside observer notices in the West in our days. The Western world has lost its civil courage, both as a whole and separately, in each country, each government, each political party and of course in the United Nations. Such a decline in courage is particularly noticeable among the ruling groups and the intellectual elite, causing an impression of loss of courage by the entire society. Of course there are many courageous individuals but they have no determining influence on public life. Political and intellectual bureaucrats show depression, passivity and perplexity in their actions and in their statements and even more so in theoretical reflections to explain how realistic, reasonable as well as intellectually and even morally warranted it is to base state policies on weakness and cowardice. And decline in courage is ironically emphasized by occasional explosions of anger and inflexibility on the part......

[PGR88]

All the social pathologies Solzhenitsyn saw then are now 10X greater in our society.

[Altura Ct.]

Absolutely

Live Not By Lies - Which is what we are doing right now. All this crap is a big lie.

[nuconvert]

ltr

[Flick Lives]

Exactly 42 years ago today, on June 8, 1978, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn traveled the New England roads from his place of refuge in Vermont to the oldest institution of higher education in the United States, Harvard University, where he delivered the keynote Commencement Address for that year.

—

Nowadays, the woke mob would never allow someone like Solzhenitsyn to speak.

[who_would_fardels_bear]

When Solzhenitsyn was speaking the Western World had decided on a cowardly course of containment with regard to Communism. We stood around while millions were slaughtered in Russia, China, etc.

Later we patted ourselves on the back when the Soviet Union collapsed even though it was more from the internal contradictions of Communism than anything the West did.

When we went in after the collapse our neoliberal policies merely turned a Communist oligarchy into a Russian Mafia oligarchy.

We patted ourselves on the back again.

Then we went into Afghanistan because that had been such a successful strategy for the Russians...

[Pajamajan]

Bookmark

[wittyone]

"Should one point out that from ancient times decline in courage has been considered the beginning of the end?"

Solzhenitsyn certainly understood the risks of civilizational collapse that were facing us in the 70's, and many have only grown worse over the years. Our leadership is largely devoid of courage when facing those who would destroy the Western way of life. This is how Donald Trump got elected, for the people of America who still share the republican values of our founders saw in him, unlike so many others, the courage to stand up to the lies and lullabies of the Left that have taken us so far down the road to ruin. And this is why he must be re-elected in November, for without his courageous leadership against the enemies of America, we are surely doomed.

[dfwgator]

Solzhenitsyn is one of the most brilliant men ever.

He is now required reading in Russia. Far cry from the old days.

[Noumenon]

But the fight for our planet, physical and spiritual, a fight of cosmic proportions, is not a vague matter of the future; it has already started. The forces of Evil have begun their decisive offensive. You can feel their pressure, yet your screens and publications are full of prescribed smiles and raised glasses. What is the joy about?

Go back, all of you and Read The Whole Thing. Even then, Solzhenitsyn could see it coming. If we wish to keep the best aspects of our civilization, there must be a reckoning, a retribution, a retaliation so grim, so dire that it will resonate through the next millennium. The Gramscian, Machiavellian Left have removed any last iota of concern, care or compassion for their fate that I might have once had.

[Lurker]

A lot of us have seen this coming for quite some time.

Hope there’s enough of us.

L