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A World Split Apart: Commencement Address Delivered at Harvard University, June 8, 1978

Book by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn · 2 quotes · Democracy, Media, Mediocrity

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A World Split Apart: Commencement Address Delivered at Harvard University, June 8, 1978 Quotes

“Today’s Western society has revealed the inequality between the freedom for good deeds and the freedom for evil deeds. A statesman who wants to achieve something important and highly constructive for his country has to move cautiously and even timidly; thousands of hasty (and irresponsible) critics cling to him at all times; he is constantly rebuffed by parliament and the press. He has to prove that his every step is well-founded and absolutely flawless. Indeed, an outstanding, truly great person who has unusual and unexpected initiatives in mind does not get any chance to assert himself; dozens of traps will be set for him from the beginning. Thus mediocrity triumphs under the guise of democratic restraints.”

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Book:A World Split Apart: Commencement Address Delivered at Harvard University, June 8, 1978
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“There is yet another surprise for someone coming from the totalitarian East with its rigorously unified press: One discovers a common trend of preferences within the Western press as a whole (the spirit of the time), generally accepted patterns of judgment, and maybe common corporate interests, the sum effect being not competition but unification.”

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Book:A World Split Apart: Commencement Address Delivered at Harvard University, June 8, 1978
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