Freedom: A Comparison of two works by Alexander Solzhenitsyn

The first consideration essential to the argument is the definition of freedom. In the West, and especially in the United States of America—a nation created solely for the sake of the preservation of freedom—Solzhenitsyn says “destructive and irresponsible freedom has been granted boundless space” (Speech 4). The degradation of society to which he refers cannot be denied even by the most loyal patriots this land has to offer in her defense. In a relatively abrupt change from standards of the past, the West has begun to classify what Solzhenitsyn called “human decadence” (Speech 4) as a form of freedom.

Solzhenitsyn says that only suffering can teach the human soul to long for “things higher, warmer and purer than those offered by today’s mass living habits” (Speech 6). There is no virtue to be found in allowing human beings to run free as animals, obeying the whims of their appetites. If the Western world is to reclaim its position as the supreme defender of true freedom, our leaders must learn to replace superficial values with those once taught by life-hardened ancestors who were no strangers to suffering.

One of the most prevalent reasons for the degeneration of true freedom in Western society, according to Solzhenitsyn, is the direct meddling of the media in matters better left alone. The general media has become ignorant of its responsibility to uphold the standards of society, or perhaps it has merely become drunk with power. Using the philosophy of “everyone is entitled to know everything,” (Speech 5) the media force-feeds its muckraking to the population and is directly responsible for the creation of “trends” in thinking. By broadcasting only “those opinions which do not too openly contradict their own and the general trend,” (Speech 5) the public is denied access to an amount of objective information sufficient for them to form their own opinions. On rare occasions when people are presented with said information, human nature prevents many from considering it seriously due to fear of being wrong—or worse, being considered an outcast from the team. The phenomenon known as mob mentality exists as much in Western trends of thought a

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