Solzhenitsyn Speech Review

A World Split Apart: Address at Harvard Class Day, Afternoon Exercises, Thursday, June 8, 1978
By Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

If humanism were right in declaring that man is born to be happy, he would not be born to die. Since his body is doomed to die, his task on earth must be of a more spiritual nature.

This speech is Solzhenitsyn’s famous Harvard address that was met with hostility and heckling boos from his audience. They didn’t appreciate Americanism being so vehemently condemned, especially by a foreigner. I think Solzhenitsyn brings a wise perspective, though, and we should at least listen to his thoughts with open minds and hearts.

Saying, “Truth is seldom pleasant; it is almost invariably bitter,” Solzhenitsyn makes the American ego the target of scathing rebuke in this speech. His basic premise is that, although Socialism is evil (“Socialism of any type and shade leads to a total destruction of the human spirit and to a leveling of mankind into death.”), the West does not offer an attractive alternative. The West’s identifying qualities are cowardice and individual self-sufficiency. We defend human rights, but not human obligations; we champion freedom of the press, but fail to appreciate the responsibility that journalists carry for the world and for history. We patronize a suffering world, but offer only “mass living habits, introduced by the revolting invasion of publicity, by TV stupor and by intolerable music.” We claim freedom of religion, but practice freedom from religion. These atrocious qualities have produced an America that is wrapped up in humanism and materialism and avoids any inclination of responsibility toward God and society. The decline of courage, the decadence of art, and the lack of statesmen are three symptoms Solzhenitsyn identifies as fatal to America.

Ouch! Not much has changed since 1978. People, we have work to do.