A Canadian and Three Russians

 
From The Gulag Archipelago (Abridged) by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Chapter 4, The Bluecaps: 

So let the reader who expects this book to be a political expose slam its covers shut right now. 

If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart? 

During the life of any heart this line keeps changing place; sometimes it is squeezed one way by exuberant evil and sometimes it shifts to allow enough space for good to flourish. One and the same human being is, at various ages, under various circumstances, a totally different human being. At times he is close to being a devil, at times to sainthood. But his name doesn’t change, and to that name we ascribe the whole lot, good and evil. 

Socrates taught us: Know thyself!

Confronted by the pit into which we are about to toss those who have done us harm, we halt, stricken dumb: it is after all only because of the way things worked out that they were the executioners and we weren’t. 

In an old blog entry I imperfectly recalled my first exposure to Russian writers, (Dostoyevsky, Solzhenitsyn and Tolstoy, being the main ones) and the life-long fascination with their works. (I am at present listening to the audio version of Anna Karenina … again). A decade or so later, I was haunted by the “how did this happen” of WWII’s Nazi concentration camps, and read a few books that illustrated the tragedies in all their horrifying details. In my further pursuit to understand the whys and hows of these atrocities, I came across my old friend Solzhenitsyn’s The Gulag Archipelago. 

Sometimes, when I read a book or listen to a song, a phrase or idea put forth therein resonates perfectly with something in me and my involuntary reaction is to say (or think), “They know. He knows. She knows.” Something clicks, like a key in a lock, hand to a glove, puzzle piece to a space, password to a login. They know the struggle, the thoughts, the temptations, the guilt, the delight, the joy, the strife, the sadness, the madness, the illness, the pain, the despair. They know. And they have illustrated it with words or music so perfectly that my whole person understands and connects, not just with words, but viscerally, as if my whole life with all it’s stages, understands, because I have lived it, but didn’t comprehend it fully at the time.  

Recently I read 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos by Jordan Peterson, in which he recommends reading The Gulag Archipelago, in addition to a few of my other favorite Russians–Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy. He is a University of Toronto professor and clinical psychologist, a Canadian who knows. He may not be as verbally eloquent as the novelists (he is a scientist), but he has read the Russians, gotten their message, and understands. One thing he understands is that The Gulag Archipelago is, on the surface, an expose of the Soviet penal camp system after WWII, but it is, more importantly, a book about human nature and how incredibly wretched it can become when people don’t think critically or speak truth. 

I have always been interested in psychology, in people and how they think and how they act (that is why, naturally, I got a degree in Horticulture ;) ), it’s why I was so fascinated with Dostoyevsky’s works, it’s why I read Jung and Freud in high school. It’s why I listen to Peterson’s lectures on YouTube. 

Peterson doesn’t candy coat it. What he says–in a peanut shell– is that life is difficult, it sucks. If it’s not hard for you right now, it is certain you know someone for whom life is a battle they are losing. It may be due to random disasters like accidents, illnesses, pain, or it may be because of the individual’s bad life decisions, or it may be due to fallout from other people’s bad life decisions. They may hide their struggles, or wear them right out on their sleeves. And if your life isn’t difficult right now, it may be some time in the future. Life is difficult for everyone. 

So don’t make it worse for yourself, or others. Try to make it better. If you don’t know where to start, start small; clean your room. Turn chaos into order, starting with your small microcosm. Speak truth, or at least, don’t lie to yourself or others.  

Do a good turn daily. 

I understand my fascination with Peterson. His lectures, books and podcasts all feed areas of my interest, my questions about life, my whys and hows, my deep fascinations. He uses ancient as well as more recent stories (myths, fairytales, folktales), developmental psychology and other sciences to help explain why we have unspoken “rules,” and why humanity is the way it is, all over the world. He cuts through all the feel-good, everyone-is-right-no-matter-what (relativism, Post-Modernists), poor-helpless-me-based thinking. Although many of his “followers” are men, I, as a woman have found him to be very helpful, if only to justify and echo my admiration of the Russian writers.  

I recommend the Russian writers, I recommend Peterson's book, even if you think you have your life all sorted out, it will help. I recommend his book especially if you think you know (via his vociferous opponents in media) what his message is.  

His 12 Rules for Life make sense and will give you power to make a change for the good in your life. If you’ve ever read the news and shouted, “What the heck is going on with people?” you might find solace and help in reading 12 Rules. If you want to know what life will look like if we don’t heed his advice, particularly of speaking truth, read The Gulag Archipelago, even the abridged version will do. And if you want to experience authors who know about the human condition, take some time and energy to read Dostoyevsky and/or Tolstoy (they both wrote short stories, so you don't have to start with the longer tomes).

Mr. Peterson’s 12 Rules. 

Chapter 1. Stand up straight with your shoulders back

Even if you don’t feel powerful, power poses help you interact with people more effectively. 

Chapter 2. Treat yourself like someone you are responsible for helping

Don’t let yourself do things you wouldn’t want a loved one to do. 

Chapter 3. Make friends with people who want the best for you

The people you hang out with will influence you. Don’t hang around people who drag you down. 

Chapter 4. Compare yourself to who you were yesterday, not to who someone else is today

Make improvements that are within your reach, and build on them to get where you want to be. 

Chapter 5. Do not let your children do anything that makes you dislike them
... because if you don't like them, other people won't either. 

Chapter 6. Set your house in perfect order before you criticize the world

Chapter 7. Pursue what is meaningful (not what is expedient)

Chapter 8. Tell the truth–or, at least, don’t lie

Chapter 9. Assume the person you are listening to might know something you don’t 

This one is so relevant. You are only one person, you can’t know everything or experience everything. Seek to learn from others, even if you disagree violently with them. 

Chapter 10. Be precise in your speech 

Say what you mean. I have trouble with that one sometimes because I understand so much of life through metaphor and association. 

**

Chapter 11. Do not bother children when they are skateboarding 

… or mountain biking, skiing, doing archery, throwing tomahawks at targets, climbing safe ladders … (within reasonably safe spaces, of course) ... etc

Chapter 12 Pet a cat when you encounter one on the street*

Because life sucks and small kindnesses make it better.  Cats can be standoffish, stingy with their friendship. You have to approach them, they will not ask for affection (generally), you must offer it. 

*Incidentally, but kinda not related, in one of the stories in The Gulag Archipelago, (not in the abridged version) titled, “The White Kitten” (Part 5, Chapter 7), Georgi Tenno escaped a gulag, along with a fellow prisoner. At a critical moment in his pursuit of freedom, when he was debating on whether to act ruthlessly (as his pursuers did) with a family he encountered in order to escape capture, or act with mercy (and risk capture), a white kitten rubbed affectionately against his legs, tipping the scales. He was caught shortly after and returned to prison (not before being savagely beaten). This story intrigued me so much that I looked it up in the original long, three volume book. 

“I felt as though the touch of this kitten had sapped my will power. Stretched taut for twenty days, ever since I had slipped under the wire, it suddenly seemed to snap. I felt that, whatever Kolya (his fellow escaper) might say to me now, I could never take their lives nor even the money they had earned in the sweat of their brows.” 

**This is an attraction at The City Museum in St. Louis. If you are ever in that city, I highly recommend spending a few hours here-child or adult- you will not regret it.