Today I tried publishing a post on Facebook about a book I started reading. It did not get approved, probably because it has two Russian words in there (i.e. the name of the author :))
It concerns The Guleg Archipelago by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and it documents the horrible events he went through under the rule of Lenin and Stalin, his arrest, and his life in the labour camps. Don’t worry, I won’t detail that here, but to give you an idea about what is awaiting me in this book, I’ll copy the Author’s note of the book here:
In this book there are no fictitious persons, nor fictitious events. People and places are named with their own names. If they are identified by initials instead of names, it is for personal considerations. If they are not named at all, it is only because human memory has failed to preserve their names. But it all took place just as it is here described.
The book could never have been created by one person alone. In addition to what I myself was able to take away from the Archipelago – on the skin of my back and with my eyes and ears – material for this book was given me in reports, memoirs, and letters by 227 witnesses, whose names were to have been listed here. What I here express to them is not personal gratitude, because this is our common, collective monument to all those who were tortured and murdered.
Indeed, it kind of sets the tone for the book..
It’s not that I particularly like reading horrible stories or stories of war. In this case, my interest got spiked by Jordan Peterson’s reference to the book: It appears that while Aleksandr endured the cruelty he was exposed to, he went back through his life and looked at all the choices he made that could have led to his situation transpiring exactly at the less than desirable situation he was in at that moment. From that moment onwards, he started making different choices and his ‘small’ steps effectively helped bring down that cruel Sovjet regime. This is so hopeful.. And if it teaches us one thing it is that one mosquito in the room can make a difference. How powerful is that?
Now let’s get back on track with what I actually wanted to post about (see image below): As I started out in the book and came to p10 of the first chapter ‘Arrest’, I found myself drawing a parallel with what we often hear nowadays: ‘I have nothing to hide’ (hence who needs privacy rules and regulations, i.e. yes officer, just stick your nose in whatever you feel you must stick your nose into). Perhaps that is why this page resonated with me so much because it detailed exactly what happens when there is too much control, and people go mad (parallels anyone? :)). He describes that back in those days, no reason was needed to arrest someone, and that it is not because you are innocent, that you can’t be locked up and send to labour camps.. for life. This is essentially what happened to him.
I feel we must be reminded of what can go wrong and intervene in time, especially given the current climate: We have become so complacent in what we do in our lives, we take everything for granted and are put to sleep by all the distractions around us. Distraction competes with focus. Focus which is required to get stuff done, to remain awake to what is happening around us, to attain short- and long term goals. Since we are so keen on convenience, we seem to be happy to exchange the human rights our ancestors fought long and hard for with a fake feeling of security, and if we continue on this track it doesn’t look good for those who come after us..
As the saying goes:
Those who give away their freedom to attain more security will eventually lose both.