Looks Like George Got it…

George Friedman of Stratfor, “the private CIA” that supplies condensed intelligence to Wall Streeters and others, offers a view of Solzhenitsyn’s impact that exceeds any I’ve seen. Seems to understand or at least be more sympathetic to his spiritual perspective as well as offer a promising outlook for Mother Russia. Here’s an excerpt:

“From Solzhenitsyn’s point of view, Western capitalism and liberalism are in their own way as horrible as Stalinism. Adam Smith saw man as primarily pursuing economic ends. Economic man seeks to maximize his wealth. Solzhenitsyn tried to make the case that this is the most pointless life conceivable. He was not objecting to either property or wealth, but to the idea that the pursuit of wealth is the primary purpose of a human being, and that the purpose of society is to free humans to this end.”

And another:

“He viewed freedom of expression in the same way. For Americans, the right to express oneself transcends the content of the expression. That you speak matters more than what you say. To Solzhenitsyn, the same principle that turned humans into obsessive pursuers of wealth turned them into vapid purveyors of shallow ideas. Materialism led to individualism, and individualism led to a culture devoid of spirit. The freedom of the West, according to Solzhenitsyn, produced a horrifying culture of intellectual self-indulgence, licentiousness and spiritual poverty. In a contemporary context, the hedge fund coupled with The Daily Show constituted the bankruptcy of the West.

To have been present when he once addressed a Harvard commencement! On the one side, Harvard Law and Business School graduates — the embodiment of economic man. On the other side, the School of Arts and Sciences, the embodiment of free expression. Both greeted their heroic resister, only to have him reveal himself to be religious, patriotic and totally contemptuous of the Vatican of self-esteem, Harvard.”

Not bad for a bunch of civilian spooks. Of course, I’d encourage you to read the whole thing… but most are probably far more familiar with his material than I… and don’t need to!

And while there are those who discount Stratfor as offering no particular insight… my son among them… as a long time subscriber, I’d say, “..yeah, but it’s handy, pretty decent, and not too pricey for those of us who don’t always have time to dig.” As to his conclusion, as pie-eyed as it may seem, there are reasons Stratfor continues to make the grade with a tough audience. See what you think.

Big Al… Down for the Count

Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s repose has been written up and off by many. I loved the Harvard address. The rest… I leave to those among the Russophile literatsi. He was a man of courage, an Orthodox Christian, and he changed the face of Soviet Russia – even as his own grooming seemed challenged enough to leave his agent confused over which … a “cough drop brother” or the lion king… that he represented… or as it turns out… resented.

Today’s Financial Times has two remembrances. The first by John Lloyd and Arkady Ostrovsky mentions details seldom observed elsewhere:

“He said that for all its misery, Russia retained a soul the west had lost. Some 20 years later, he returned to his country, flooded with McDonald’s, Mexican soap operas, quiz shows and little obvious sign of “soul”. His books, such as his great historical cycle, The Red Wheel, on the end of tsarism and the birth of communism, were available but largely unbought.”

He was of course a big fan of Putin’s… and Putin returned the favor. Few others did:

“After a short spell of honors and greetings he became another object of mockery on whom the cynical young could look down and at whom the compromised elders could sneer. He was given a television programme on the main state channel and every other Monday after the evening news, he would discourse at first with guests whom he largely ignored, then in a monologue that was full of anguish, complaint, demands and warnings. The television show was axed. A curt message from the management spoke of falling ratings. The country heading towards a “global market” had no time for the “old fool’s” sermons.”

Wow. Rather makes the puzzle of post-apartheid Nelson Mandella’s description of his dance with the Spice Girls as the “most wonderful experience of his life”… far more understandable. The article quotes Joseph Brodsky from 1995 saying of Solzhenitsyn that “It is another country; you cannot step in the same river twice…” and comments that he did, but “the river had flowed past him”.

The FT’s editorial page has a far kinder view, and a corresponding balance to this first. Here, the editorial writers also offer the first evidence I’ve seen that anyone assigned to the task actually read the Harvard speech.. and quotes specifically mentioning the “destructive and irresponsible freedom of western life, including the excessive burdening flow of information from the media.” Hmmm. On second thought… I’m beginning to recall why they don’t like mentioning this speech.

But more than this, the explanation gives account of his post-Soviet character as fully consistent:

“It takes an obsessive personality to be a brave and constant critic of cruel dictatorships: Solzhenitsyn certaintly fitted that mould, as did that other towering figure among the Soviet dissidents of the 1960’s, Andrei Sakharov, the physicist. Their refusal to compromise made them ill-suited to any post-revolutionary role.”

“Yet Russia under Vladmir Putin has moved back towards the world Solzhenitsyn believed in. He was a nationalist, a fierce defender of the Russian Orthodox church, and convinced of the unique cultural role of Russia in the world.”

We would all have had him our own way. He was his own man. Memory Eternal!