The Elegant Variation: THEY CALL THAT "PROGRESS"

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February 15, 2006

THEY CALL THAT "PROGRESS"

The BBC remembers the 1974 treason charges against Alexander Solzhenitsyn.

The Soviet authorities have formally charged Russian writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn with treason one day after expelling him from the country.

The writer, 55, was deported to West Germany yesterday and stripped of his Russian citizenship.

Thirty years later, America has taken the lead in persecuting journalists and writers. What goes around, comes around, eh?

Posted at 12:15 AM in Writers Under Siege | Permalink

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Who are we supposedly "persecuting?" Waiting 24 hours before alerting the press corps that the VP accidentally shot a fellow hunter hardly rises to my definition of "persecute."

Posted by: Fern | February 15, 2006 at 02:26 PM

Be careful with words: "persecution" of journalists and writers?

Posted by: goethe girl | February 15, 2006 at 02:37 PM

"Persecution" might refer (if you'll forgive my going back a news cycle or two) to the journalists being jailed for not revealing their sources.

This White House has been so aggressively anti-media -- and open about that, as if the American people, wink-wink, are on the same page -- that it can only recall the Soviet countries. This country was born on the back of the free press, and that's how freedom continues to be borne today (see last year's Orange Revolution in Ukraine); but still this administration demonizes the press, says it needs to find ways to bypass them, and so it closes the door at every turn and praises the virtues of silence and confidential, unless it deals with your silence and confidences -- those it wants to know.

I've been writing about the growing Sovietization of Washington for a couple of years now. I'm amazed more people haven't been picking up on it, especially after the NSA oh-by-the-way, we'll-be-listening, but-don't-worry-if-you've-got-nothing-to-worry-about thing. That's when I wrote this:

Whenever one company takes over another, it absorbs those products or techniques that are profitable and discards those that are not. The United States, which governs more and more by the corporate model than the civic version, is no different. When it triumphed over Communism, it might as well have been a corporate takeover. Overnight, the world went from being dominated by two brands to one. Markets expanded for American and western companies. McDonald’s came to Moscow, German supermarkets opened in Kyiv. The politics in Washington, now unchallenged on the world stage, also began to change, pushing out to fill in its new, roomier boundaries.

It continues here. Sorry about the length and link, Mark. Do what you must. This issue gets me.

Posted by: WittyName32 | February 16, 2006 at 01:23 AM

No worries about length, Stephan - you are dead on, and you get my meaning precisely. It's just one more thing to be depressed about that others don't see it as clearly, or jump right to the Cheney buckshot nonsense.

Posted by: TEV | February 16, 2006 at 08:27 AM

In my humble opinion, it's the press that demonizes this administration.

Posted by: goethe girl | February 17, 2006 at 06:20 AM

Do you really think the U.S. has "taken the lead" in persecution? Tell that to Orhan Pamuk. Tell that to any Iranian journalist.

Posted by: Nav Purewal | February 17, 2006 at 10:47 PM

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The Elegant Variation

A Literary Weblog.
A Guardian Top 10 Literary Blog * A Forbes "Best of the Web" Pick * A Los Angeles Magazine Top Los Angeles Blog
"Really brave ... or really stupid" - NPR

February 15, 2006

THEY CALL THAT "PROGRESS"

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MY NOVEL

WORTHY READINGS

TEV DEFINED

RECOMMENDED

THIS GUN FOR HIRE:
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SECOND LOOK

Categories

The Elegant Variation

A Literary Weblog. A Guardian Top 10 Literary Blog * A Forbes "Best of the Web" Pick * A Los Angeles Magazine Top Los Angeles Blog "Really brave ... or really stupid" - NPR

February 15, 2006

THEY CALL THAT "PROGRESS"

TrackBack

Comments

Verify your Comment

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MY NOVEL

WORTHY READINGS

TEV DEFINED

RECOMMENDED

THIS GUN FOR HIRE: Reviews & Criticism

SECOND LOOK

Categories

A Literary Weblog.
A Guardian Top 10 Literary Blog * A Forbes "Best of the Web" Pick * A Los Angeles Magazine Top Los Angeles Blog
"Really brave ... or really stupid" - NPR

THIS GUN FOR HIRE:
Reviews & Criticism