2014 Personality Lecture 13: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (Existentialism)

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, perhaps the greatest Russian author of the twentieth century, was an Orthodox Christian existentialist, a direct descendant of Dostoevsky's thinking, and a man who took a mighty axe to the terrible tangled roots of communist totalitarianism. He associated inauthentic being on the part of the individual, within society, with the direct degeneration of that society into tyranny and malevolence.

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[blueshirttail]

I read the Gulag Archipelago in my early 20s and it affected me so much that I have bought it for several of my family members and friends and pressured them to read it. I learned of the book after reading "The Aquariums of Pyongyang" and became interested in books about totalitarian governments. I really love everything that you are doing, professor, especially resisting this cringing encroachment upon free society now coming from the leftist ideologues. Thank you so much. Your work is sincerely appreciated.

[CMFKILFEATHER]

I’m here in June 2020. This is the medicine we need right now.

[JerseyJimFish]

A very bizarre thing just happened to me. I've listened to all of this brilliant insight multiple times in transit to and from fishing hot spots. I have since read(audio book)Gulag Arpillego, Man's Search For Meaning, Kant, Jung, Rand and many, many others.
In the beginning I didn't know even what nihilism was.
As I re-visit this fundimental presentation, I just became aware that I am being educated by the sharpest minds that have existed for centuries. What an amazing existance you and I have, that a mere fish monger could be enlightened and educated by this plethora of knowledge at our finger tips!😁
I can't understand those that are ungrateful for this gift that has been bequeathed to us by the long line of people that provided the excesses we enjoy.
Please suggest further reading as my thirst for knowledge has just been greatly enhanced.

[denisZsuave]

"a single individual can stand up against a tyranny and win" . Let that sink in for a moment

[andreychetvertakov]

This is just brilliant! I am going to translate that whole lecture into russian language and spread it through russian social networks.
Loved every bit of it. So insightful!

[oodlebear]

“One person who stopped lying could overturn a tyranny..”
Bill C-16 was the catalyst that made a hero unwilling to lie. Thank you Mr. Peterson. Your dire warnings came true, not because you are a prophet, but because you did your homework.

[adelehall]

I sleep through my university classes.

Then spend my free time voluntarily watching hours of other university lectures😂

[camerons.]

I am a drowning man and this lecture is a lifeboat, thank you!

[mr.sotack]

I never met my actual father. I met a father when I discovered Jordan Peterson. I love a man I’ve never actually met. I’m so grateful for him.

[sbeast]

*Best quotes*
26:44 "One of the upshots of the Jungian theory is that to the degree you don’t bear the responsibility for your own actions, to the degree that you avoid responsibility, or shunt them off onto say totalitarian or ideological systems, when you avoid responsibility for you own thought because if you’re the follower of an ideological system you have avoided the responsibility of thinking for yourself, and the consequence of that was continual catastrophe as those pathological, rational systems unfolded themselves."
28:55 "Solzhenitsyn observed this, and he was very interested in how this system developed, and his conclusion after decades of thinking was that the reason the Russian system was able to maintain itself, fundamentally, was because individuals were willing to give up the responsibility of their own relationship to the truth to the state, and constantly lie to themselves about everything."
52:38 "If you have a rigid belief system, and that’s what an ideology is, because it’s axioms are such that it encompasses all of reality, and then there are details left outside that don’t seem to fit into that reality, well then you ignore them, but what if they’re embodied, what if they’re people who are objecting to the way you think. Well, the equivalent to repressing evidence that runs contrary to your theory is the murder of people who object to what you say."
56:09 [on world war 2] "And so the conclusion that’s reasonable to draw from that is that the killing was the purpose of the war; all the rest of it was just window dressing…ideology was only there to allow the people who were fundamentally motivated towards genocide and destruction to pretend to themselves that they hadn’t become rotten to the absolute core, but when push came to shove, and they had to show where their allegiances lie, they weren’t even valid followers of the nazi party, because they put the continued pursuit of death over their own survival, even as an ideology."
56:54 "The narrower the box that you stuff yourself into, the weaker your character becomes, because there’s nothing left of you; you’re just a shell that has demons in it."
1:03:53 "Evil is the force that believes that its knowledge is complete."
1:11:04 "The existentialists of the late 19th century attempted to diagnose the pathology of the human personality at a deeper level, I believe, than anyone else had ever attempted. And their fundamental conclusion was that the destruction by rationality of the evolved systems of meaning, that people had previously lived within, had undermined the psychological strength of each individual, divorced from their own history. That led them to gravitate towards either nihilism, or as a counter position, to gravitate towards totalitarianism."
1:16:17 "The lesson of the 20th century is: that a single individual can stand up against a tyrant and win."
1:16:36 "As inheritors of the catastrophic legacy of the 20th century, and as inhabitants of the new millennium, part of your responsibility is to live your own life, and to live it honestly, and to pay attention to your own experience, and not take the easy way out that ideological systems offer you. They’re destined to transform themselves into rigid and murderous pathologies, and you offload your responsibility for thinking and acting to them. And then you have to ask yourself, ‘well, what are they?’. Well, all the evidence suggests that they’re not the sort of thing that you want to have in your head."

[mohammadtalep]

Words can't describe how grateful am I to listen to such a great man

[PlateArmorUnderwear]

I grew up fearing pretty much everything. Totalitarianism, nuclear threat, communism, life, death, etc. JBP saved me from my existential depression at a point of crisis three years ago and I’ve been listening and learning ever since. These lectures are a godsend. Thank yous! Hope to meet you some day. Love ya

[johnstockill]

My epiphany was reading the comments and seeing just what others took from it, this man is brilliant

[ryanmiller]

Watching this in 2022 sure hits different

[MrDarryl]

Living in a nihilistic age is really an impossible situation. We cannot unsee what rationality has shown us, but life without a framework is impossible too.

[Bulldoghartl]

This lecture is so relevant it's unbelievable. Uploaded over 8 years ago and it begins with Vlad and the situation between Ukraine and Russia. We've seen this conflict coming for nearly a decade.

[jandross]

Jordan Peterson is Brilliant! This is the kind of thought engagement that I have craved most of my life. I started reading "The Gulag Archipelago" today. Thank you Dr Peterson.

[trailtrs]

One of the greatest lectures I have heard on the human condition in my 66 years

[javibentue]

Imagine having the urge to applaud, TO APPLAUD, to your professor at the end of every single lesson.
Speaks volumes about what a great man Dr. Peterson is.

[eddiedreher]

May 14, 2022, rewatching this: that opening news headline is especially glaring now. -and a most beautiful conclusion there, at the end.