"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."
from "A World Split Apart," A. Solzhenitsyn.
Sends a shiver up your spine. doesn't it? Because he's so damnably right.
Yes, your comment about Solzhenitsyn being "the conscience of the 20th century" is quite apt. I would add to that, as you have pointed out, he was also one of the great prophets. Many of the things he pointed out in his 1978 speech loom ever larger today, just as he predicted.
I am reminded of the phrase, "one does not make history, one merely survives it".
I just finished reading Philip Howard's 1994 book, The Death of Common Sense, and much of what Solzhenitsyn said about humanism/rationalism and the legal structures of our society are amazingly profound when cast in the light of more recent events.
You know, for hairy-backed, knuckle-dragging gun-loving neaderthals, we sure do some interesting reading, dontcha think? $;-)
