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Freedom of Speech, and Political Rights |
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[1958] |
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Freedom of Speech, and Political Rights |
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[1958] |
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When, at the age of twelve, at the time of the Russian revolution, I first heard the Communist principle that Man must exist for the sake of the State, I perceived that this was the essential issue, that this principle was evil, and that it could lead to nothing but evil, regardless of any methods, details, decrees, policies, promises and pious platitudes. This was the reason for my opposition to Communism then - and it is my reason now. I am still a little astonished, at times, that too many adult Americans do not understand the nature of the fight against Communism as clearly as I understood it at the age of twelve: they continue to believe that only Communist methods are evil, while Communist ideals are noble. All the victories of Communism since the year 1917 are due to that particular belief among the men who are still free. To those who might wonder whether the conditions of existence in Soviet Russia have changed in any essential respect since 1925, 1 will make a suggestion: take a look through the files of the newspapers. If you do, you will observe the following pattern: first, you will read glowing reports about the happiness, the prosperity, the industrial development, the progress and the power of the Soviet Union, and that any statements to the contrary are the lies of prejudiced reactionaries; then, about five years later, you will read admissions that things were pretty miserable in the Soviet Union five years ago, just about as bad as the prejudiced reactionaries had claimed, but now the problems are solved and the Soviet Union is a land of happiness, prosperity, industrial development, progress and power; about five years later, you will read that Trotsky (or Zinoviev or Kamenev or Litvinov or the "kulaks" or the foreign imperialists) had caused the miserable state of things five years ago, but now Stalin has purged them all and the Soviet Union has surpassed the decadent West in happiness, prosperity, industrial development, etc.; five years later, you will read that Stalin was a monster who had crushed the progress of the Soviet Union, but now it is a land of happiness, prosperity, artistic freedom, educational perfection and scientific superiority over the whole world. How many of such five-year plans will you need before you begin to understand? From Ayn Rand's October 1958 foreward to We The Living (60th anniversary edition). Ayn Rand was a twentieth-century novelist and philosopher. She wrote several popular novels and developed a philosophy known as "Objectivism". Rand was born on 2nd February 1905 in St. Petersburg, Russia, to a Russian Jewish family, although she became an atheist at an early age. She was born Alisa Zinovievna Rosenbaum, but adopted the name "Ayn Rand" when she left the Soviet Union. She moved to the United States in 1926 (arriving 18th February) and became a naturalized US citizen on 13th March 1931. She died of heart failure on 6th March 1982 in New York City. See: http://www.noblesoul.com/orc/bio/biofaq.html Ayn Rand was well-known for her many books, including Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead. |
