Twitter, Nazi Germany, and Your Daemon

“The simple step of a courageous individual is not to partake in the lie. One word of truth outweighs the whole world.” -Alexander Solzhenitsyn

I’m not sure where to start this. I’m not even sure of what to focus on here. I don’t think I can properly tie all of these issues together, especially not in something shorter than a full book. I’m not smart enough or articulate enough to do it properly and succinctly. Morality, free speech, boycotting, the power of the individual.

If you want to quit reading here, I understand. All I ask is that you go back up and reread that Solzhenitsyn quote a few times and think about it for a minute—or a decade—and return to doing what you found entertaining or meaningful before this.

I don’t like writing about current events or politics—there’s enough of that out there as it is. So I will stick to the broader concepts and ideas.

However I should at least give a vague background for why I chose to write this now.

The current President of The United States has been removed from all major internet platforms. A rising platform has been removed from cell phone companies (creating an obvious monopoly and show of power). Many people with views contrary to popular opinion have been erased from public discourse. No trial. No path to redemption.

You may have your own opinions about these things, but I think these things are extremely dangerous and counter to the values that made the west so great.

I don’t like the president.

But it isn’t about that. It’s the arbitrary nature of deciding who can be heard and who can’t. It is a slippery slope.

During the Russian revolution, peasants who were wealthy enough to own a farm and hire labor, or Kulaks, were ordered to be arrested, exiled or killed. That definition, “peasants who were wealthy enough to own a farm and hire labor”. Well that was the initial definition of Kulak. But the people in power making the rules conveniently changed the definition as time went on. It became anyone who had enough money for any sort of machinery. Eventually it was anyone who wasn’t starving.

Maybe you think people with opposing beliefs to your own don’t deserve to speak. How far must the goal post be moved before you change your mind on deciding who can speak and who can’t?

Seeing this didn’t sit right with me. I guess you could say my conscience was telling me to do something. As a person with no influence and no power, there’s not a lot I can do. But that actually doesn’t matter.

The Gulag Archipelago by Alexander Solzhenitsyn is a three volume text detailing the Soviet gulag system and who played a part in causing it. But beyond that its a self examination into Solzhenitsyn himself and what role he, a prisoner, played in the labor camps and executions.

Solzhenitsyn realized that the disintegration of society was caused by the individuals that made up the society.

In Germany it was not only the Nazis and the informants. It was anyone who played a role in allowing the atrocities to happen.

“The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either – but right through every human heart…even within hearts overwhelmed by evil, one small bridgehead of good is retained. And even in the best of all hearts, there remains…an uprooted small corner of evil. Thanks to ideology the twentieth century was fated to experience evildoing calculated on a scale in the millions. Alas, all the evil of the twentieth century is possible everywhere on earth. Yet, I have not given up all hope that human beings and nations may be able, in spite of all, to learn from the experience of other people without having to go through it personally.” -Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Although it is a drop in an ocean, completely insignificant, I deleted my Twitter. It will make zero difference. But I can’t in good conscience participate in it.

If I had influence, maybe I would try to convince people to do the same. But if it doesn’t go against your beliefs and your daemon* isn’t telling you to stop participating, then don’t. The only thing I can recommend is if your conscience is nagging at you, consider listening. It is your soul at stake. Soul, for lack of a better word.

If it does bother you, and you don’t do anything about it, when the stakes seem small. Ask yourself. Who would I be in Nazi Germany, when my life is at stake, as well as my family?

*Socrates often made mention of being guided by a divine inner voice, a daemon. This spirit would take the form of an inner voice that he would hear within himself. This inner voice did not tell Socrates what to do but indicated when he was not to do something. The voice was would him before he was about to make a mistake.