Hancock on Solzhenitsyn and morality in politics
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In a recent post, Ralph Hancock writes about Solzhenitsyn, morality in politics, and natural law.
“In his 1993 speech to the International Academy of Philosophy in Liechtenstein, Alexandr Solzhenitsyn argues that, under the spell of the notion of “Progress,” we moderns have succumbed to the illusion that more is always better. This illusion has caused us to lose our “moral compass” and has made us oblivious to “something pure, elevated, and fragile;” that is, to the question of purpose. To recover some sense of purpose requires listening to the voice of “conscience,” a voice that directly contradicts the false promise of boundless progress by counseling above all “self-limitation.” This fundamental moral disposition of self-limitation is inseparable from “the awareness of a Whole and Higher Authority above us,” from an attitude of “humility before this entity.””