tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post7548440093234251722..comments2024-03-27T03:19:11.216-04:00Comments on Assistant Village Idiot: Solzhenitsyn's Harvard Commencement AddressAssistant Village Idiothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01978011985085795099noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-45070512266024063332013-03-26T19:12:42.885-04:002013-03-26T19:12:42.885-04:00According to Solzhenitsyn, "rationalistic hum...According to Solzhenitsyn, "rationalistic humanism" had been widely adopted in the West. Consequently, the West had lost it's spiritual moorings and was on the verge of decline.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-17326929765018333652007-03-27T14:39:00.000-04:002007-03-27T14:39:00.000-04:00From what little I've read, I gather that Solzheni...From what little I've read, I gather that Solzhenitsyn is a hard-core Russian nationalist who, although he was glad to have the freedom to speak and publish here, never felt that America was his Promised Land. To him, Russian culture is deeper, more spiritual, and wiser due to the Russian people's history of suffering - the kind of suffering Americans never experienced and could never understand. He never intended to stay here. He never became proficient in English and really couldn't wait to get back to his beloved homeland. <BR/><BR/>I don't think the American intelligentsia understood this dedication to Russia, the land that had treated him so badly. They tended to think of him as crusader for universal human rights (their favorite abstract cause), when he was really about freeing his home from the anti-Russian, anti-Orthodox domination of the Communists. He didn't fit the stereotype of the Oppressed Third-Worlder, so liberal minds couldn't process him.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com