The Alternative to the Backward Escape

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Running away, like escaping backward, is not the ideal solution to the rise of totalitarianism. Instead, the solution is to escape forward into a new and better reality. A parallel society serves two main purposes: It offers pockets of freedom to those rejected by the totalitarian system or who refuse to participate in it. And it forms the foundation for a new society that can grow out of the ashes of the destruction wrought by the totalitarians.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, reflecting on the Soviet Union’s descent into totalitarian rule in the mid-20th century, and all the things that could have been done to prevent it, wrote the following: “If…if… We didn’t love freedom enough. And even more – we had no awareness of the real situation. . .we hurried to submit. We submitted with pleasure! … We purely and simply deserved everything that […]

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