Solzhenitsyn Dead
By Bock Aug 6th, 2008 | Category: politics, world
So Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Nobel prizewinner, is dead at long last.
When I was a kid everyone was carrying copies of the Gulag Archipelago and Ivan Denisovich, though I’d say we probably had no idea what we were reading. Still, it seemed like a cool thing to do, and you didn’t have to do much critical thinking.
After all, Solzhenitsyn was exposing a brutal system of repression where anti-government speech was forbidden and where people could be sentenced to internal exile or locked up in prison without the benefit of a fair trial if they so much as showed signs of being dissidents.
Down with that sort of thing! we used to say, fearlessly, and it was easy to be fearless when we were thousands of miles away from Russia.
Possessing suspicious books in the old Soviet Union was enough to get you arrested. Or associating with the wrong people. Or taking pictures of the wrong building. Or even thinking the wrong thoughts. Or having the wrong religion.
Any of these things could result in government agents picking you up and interrogating you. They could make you disappear and sometimes they’d send you to Siberia or Kazakhstan for further interrogation, beatings or worse.
Thank God America was there to stand up against this evil, and remains steadfast to this day.
How different America is.
Guantanamo is not a gulag. No. I realise that the people there are political prisoners locked up without trial, but still, it isn’t a gulag. Definitely not.
Why? It just isn’t. Not in the Land of the Free.
And yes, the Department of Homeland Security monitors what books you take out of the library, but that’s not the same as the KGB watching out for suspicious literature.
Why? Again, it just isn’t. It’s different. For one thing, DHS is not spelt the same as KGB.
And yes, I know you can get arrested in the US for taking pictures in public, but that’s because … well, it’s just because.
So there! The Soviet Union was a paranoid country riddled with fear and suspicion, where the government distrusted its citizens. The United States, on the other hand, is … well, it’s the Land of the Free.
And yes, I know people in the US have been interrogated for being Muslim, but that’s not even a tiny bit like what happened in the USSR. Over there, they didn’t like any religion, but in the States, the authorities only arrest Muslims, Sikhs and Hindus because of their religion. It’s different.
And I know the DHS can put you on a no-fly list so that you’ll never be able to use an aircraft within the States again as long as you live, but that’s absolutely not the same as internal exile. You’re still free to travel around the US as an American citizen, just as long as you take the bus. So that’s completely different to the old evil Soviet system, isn’t it?
Totally.
And another point: of course the Americans use extraordinary rendition to send suspects to Egypt and Pakistan for beatings and interrogation, but that’s absolutely different to sending dissidents to Siberia and Kazakhstan like the evil old Russians did. For one thing, it’s extraordinary. It’s not normal, and never will be, no matter how many prisoners are waterboarded or electrocuted. It will always be extraordinary.
So now I hope you understand how different America is from the USSR and why America has no need of its own Solzhenitsyn. There’s no evil scheming bastard behind the Politburo in the USA.
You know, for ten years now I have tried to read “Cancer Ward”, which I have found tedious and rather over wrought.
Now I feel like I owe it to him to give it one last go….
Well it explains why no decent piece of literature has come out of Guantanamo.
“You’re still free to travel around the US as an American citizen, just as long as you take the bus.”
Just don’t take the bus into Canada unless of course the guy sitting next to you has had his lunch!
Given the statistics the government did release about the population of prisoners in Gitmo, I don’t think all of them can write or read, sadly. Some of them are what I would consider children (still teenagers, or were when taken prisoner. Regardless of what Bush says, they are still prisoners of war, not “enemy combatants”. Nice job trying to elude the Geneva Convention….can’t wait till next January…at least McCain WAS a POW and has some respect for what these guys are going through and plainly doesn’t like having Gitmo in operation).
I don’t think that George Orwell wasn’t too far off in his book 1984 … aka Big brother is watching you and the Ministry of Truth rewriting all the newspapers, books etc..
Nice one Bock.
Hope the Yanks will understand it if they ever get round to reading it.
Another difference you faile to mention is that the Yanks speak the “democratic language”.
I read Cancer Ward a thousand years ago and it scared the bejaysus out of me. Very interesting to see the bureaucrat become an “ordinary” patient and shorn of all his attributes of power. Great insight into the socio/political structure (of anywhere).
Now for your penance, try to say something nice about the Murkins. That should keep you occupied and off the streets for a while.
You’d want to be careful or Godwin will be after you. Look, I don’t know why everyone has to slag the American Government. I mean, of course they were in a better position to spot WMDs as they were the first to use one and theirs were generally big and wrought maximum damage. So they have invented legislation that allows them to spy on people. So what! Three of the terrorist organisations they targeted were PETA, Veterans for Peace and the Quakers – as in the Al QueQuakers. See what I mean. I don’t trust any of those fuckers. You might think it ridiculous that a Quaker might board a plane with a bomb but maybe that’s what they’re trying to make you think.
People keep threatening me with that Godwin bastard. And as for those murderous Quaker motherfuckers, well you’ve identified some serious terrorists there.
I imagine the 22-year-olds who man the Department of Homeland Security will want to interrogate them, once they figure out how to address an adult.
[...] Solzhenitsyn Dead – After all, Solzhenitsyn was exposing a brutal system of repression where anti-government speech was forbidden and where people could be sentenced to internal exile or locked up in prison without the benefit of a fair trial if they so … [...]
great entry, Bock. Spot on!
Heresy and hearsay, how very dare you Bock. God bless Merika. What about the Waltons and the lill house on the Prairie and Beverly Hills Jetro and that Dukes gal. Stop raining on my parade. Sure wasn’t Sol Nixon only Richard’s brother, a huge fucking conspiracy brewing here.
Could never get my head around the book and the politic, but you gotta respect the guy’s bravery and sacrifice.
Bock, you will of course go to hell for writing this.
Quaker terrorists? Dead right! Also, y’know those jehovah witness types that show up at your door? They’re actually F.B.I agents ! They work in pairs, so one guy can keep you busy with bullshit while the other tries to peer around you to see if you have anything anti-american lying around. Its True!!
The shirt, tie, and regulation haircut are a dead givaway. The bastards!!
Here in the US we do not have Gulags, we use “American Idol”, and “Dancing with the Stars” instead to numb the minds of the populace. Those that might resist are tasered or shot.
The good news for the rest of the world is that the current state of affairs can not last indefinately as we are for all practical purposes now bankrupt. Both financially and morally.
What will the mercenaries do when the paychecks stop coming?
Rape some other countries economy….
I found a way to deal with the Jehovah’s Witness/FBI people. When you see them coming, just sneak out the back door, and around behind them and pretend to be with them. Freaks em out big time. Other terrorist organisations include those salvation guys – they already have an army and aren’t afraid to tell anyone, the Samaritans – they know all your secrets, the Amish, Greenpeace and the Beatles. Good on you, America for intimidating these ruthless, murderous terrorists.
Full disclosure: Irish citizen in America.
I criticize the Patriot Act and it’s powers. I argue over Gitmo but how much of a moral highhorse can we, as Irish people, be on when the Shannon issue remains?
I think we have a reluctance to put our money where our mouth is. Is there so much profit in the Shannon stopover, financially ? or is it all political profit?
I actually love living here. I enjoy the optimism and drive of the people around me. Your own post today re: tired sheds a small bit of light on how these situations can occur. I have said it before on Devin’s blog – here we are overworked, illinformed and over-jingoed.
Most people have 10 days vacation in the entire year that they often can’t use because there is noone to cover their job, we have to hope that our kids get scholarships because 160K per child is a lot to have to save up to pay for college and while saving for retirement. There are few safety nets here so its a bit like a hamster on a wheel sometimes. It seems that this is an ideal situation for those in power. The people will barely notice, I think is there motto. And truly it takes great effort to stay informed.
I think that’s why the Presidential election has sparked something in those who want to break out of this bleariness. Let’s hope that the fundamentalists Christians don’t carry the day once more or there will be more fire and brimstone for us all.
Not to defend Gitmo, but there is a difference between holding 500 hundred prisoners at Guantanamo and the tens of millions who went through the Gulag system, of whom, officially, 2.7 million died. Unless you subscribe to the notion that a few hundred prisoners is a tragedy, while tens of millions is a statistic.
Again, it isn’t that I approve of Guantanamo, particularly, but these sorts of thoughtless comparisons really diminish the magnitude of the evil of the Gulag system, and the heroism of Solzhenitsyn’s legacy — which purportedly is the point of your post.
James Ashley
James -
Thank you for your contribution, which I know is sincere.
What is the difference between 500 prisoners in Gitmo and tens of millions in the gulags, from the point of view of the individual prisoner?