Claeyt wrote:Clipping certain words? Most of my quotes from them were the full posts. I don't think I've demonized anybody here, their ideas did that for them.
See, now you refuse responsibility for the consequences of your very own actions. It *feels* wrong and it raises questions.
The topic of this discussion is very old...
In 1847
Nikolai Gogol, a famous russian writer, wrote an unusual and highly controversial book:
After defending autocracy, serfdom, and the Orthodox Church in his book Selected Passages from Correspondence with his Friends, Gogol was attacked by his former patron Vissarion Belinsky. The first Russian intellectual to publicly preach the economic theories of Karl Marx, Belinsky accused Gogol of betraying his readership by defending the status quo.
Here is the text of Belinsky letter:
ink. Young Dostoevsky was close to execution just for publishing this letter:
link.
The same period emerged a movement called
Zemstvo. It unified a lot of young good-hearted people: doctors, teachers, who came to "folk" to teach them. It couldn't be bad, and I agree.
Now look at the letter of Dostoevsky written in 1871:
link. To quote (but I suggest to read it in a whole):
All this would take long wholly to express, but
what I really want to say to you is: If Bielinsky,
Granovsky, and all the rest of the gang, had lived to
see this day, they would have said: " No, it was not
to this that we aspired ! No, this is a mistake; we
must wait a while, the light will shine forth, progress
will win, humanity will build on new and healthier
foundations, and be happy at last !" They would
never admit that their way can lead at best but to the
Commune or to Felix Pyat. That crew was so obtuse
that even now, after the event, they would not be
able to see their error, they would persist in their
fantastic dreaming.
Should I remind what happened to Russia in 20th century? I can't say all these events were bad. They were horrible still. But I wouldn't even exist, after all! Because my parents came together from very different social and cultural backgrounds thanks to public education and equality.
And no, I don't think famines, GULAG's, mass executions are doomed to happen. But what do you think about the future of Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451"?
On the side note, I don't understand Jorb's affection to monarchy. But it doesn't give me a right to point finger at him just for that thought. And speaking of public education... for me, his quote alone doesn't say that it needs to be abolished. But it points out an obvious shortcoming.
P.S. Consider everything above as a food for thought. Everything I wanted to say, was said. This is my last post here.