Paleocon
Guru
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<blockquote><div>
<blockquote>
<div>Together with virtues of stability, continuity, immunity from
political ague, there are, needless to say, great dangers and defects in
authoritarian systems of government: the danger of dishonest
authorities, upheld by violence, the danger of arbitrary decisions and
the difficulty of correcting them, the danger of sliding into tyranny.</div>
<div>But authoritarian regimes as such are not frightening - only those
which are answerable to no one and nothing.</div>
<div>The autocrats of earlier, religious ages, though their power was
ostensibly unlimited, felt themselves responsible before God and their
own consciences.</div>
<div>The autocrats of our own time are dangerous precisely because it is
difficult to find higher values which would bind them.</div>
<div>It would be more correct to say that in relation to the true ends of
human beings here on earth (and these cannot be equated with the aims of
the animal world, which amount to no more than unhindered existence)
the state structure is of secondary significance. That this is so,
Christ himself teaches us. 'Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's - not
because every Caesar deserves it, but because Caesar's concern is not
with the most important thing in our lives.</div>
<div>[...]</div>
<div>The state system which exists in our country [i.e. USSR, 1973] is
terrible not because it is undemocratic, authoritarian, based on
physical constraint - a man can live under such conditions without harm
to his spiritual essence.</div>
<div>Our present system is unique in world history, because over and above
its physical and economic constraints, it demands of us total surrender
of our souls, continuous and active participation in the general,
conscious *lie*. To this putrefaction of the soul, this spiritual
enslavement, human beings who wish to be human cannot consent.</div>
<div>When Caesar, having extracted what is Caesar's, demands still more
insistently that we render unto him what is God's - that is a sacrifice
we dare not make!"</div>
<div style="text-align: right;">Alexander Solzhenitsyn, "As
Breathing and Consciousness Returns" (1973)</div></blockquote>
</div>
http://www.alternativeright.com/main/blogs/untimely-observations/solzhenitsyn-on-totalitarianism/
I found this excerpt from Solzhenitsyn on the Alternative Right blog and thought I would share it. I italicized the last part which I found particularly powerful.
</blockquote>
</div>
<blockquote><div>
<blockquote>
<div>Together with virtues of stability, continuity, immunity from
political ague, there are, needless to say, great dangers and defects in
authoritarian systems of government: the danger of dishonest
authorities, upheld by violence, the danger of arbitrary decisions and
the difficulty of correcting them, the danger of sliding into tyranny.</div>
<div>But authoritarian regimes as such are not frightening - only those
which are answerable to no one and nothing.</div>
<div>The autocrats of earlier, religious ages, though their power was
ostensibly unlimited, felt themselves responsible before God and their
own consciences.</div>
<div>The autocrats of our own time are dangerous precisely because it is
difficult to find higher values which would bind them.</div>
<div>It would be more correct to say that in relation to the true ends of
human beings here on earth (and these cannot be equated with the aims of
the animal world, which amount to no more than unhindered existence)
the state structure is of secondary significance. That this is so,
Christ himself teaches us. 'Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's - not
because every Caesar deserves it, but because Caesar's concern is not
with the most important thing in our lives.</div>
<div>[...]</div>
<div>The state system which exists in our country [i.e. USSR, 1973] is
terrible not because it is undemocratic, authoritarian, based on
physical constraint - a man can live under such conditions without harm
to his spiritual essence.</div>
<div>Our present system is unique in world history, because over and above
its physical and economic constraints, it demands of us total surrender
of our souls, continuous and active participation in the general,
conscious *lie*. To this putrefaction of the soul, this spiritual
enslavement, human beings who wish to be human cannot consent.</div>
<div>When Caesar, having extracted what is Caesar's, demands still more
insistently that we render unto him what is God's - that is a sacrifice
we dare not make!"</div>
<div style="text-align: right;">Alexander Solzhenitsyn, "As
Breathing and Consciousness Returns" (1973)</div></blockquote>
</div>
http://www.alternativeright.com/main/blogs/untimely-observations/solzhenitsyn-on-totalitarianism/
I found this excerpt from Solzhenitsyn on the Alternative Right blog and thought I would share it. I italicized the last part which I found particularly powerful.
</blockquote>
</div>