Solzhenitsyn

Solzhenitsyn died the other day. I'm not going to re-tell his story here, of course. Commentary is plentiful, much of it quite good. Here is one of the more balanced opinions I've come across. I do want to point out, though, that I can think of no better illustration of the depressing and dangerous idea that opposing a specific repressive, tyrannical regime is no guarantee that you will embrace the principles of liberty and openness, even if you oppose that regime with your entire being, like Solzhenitsyn did. Opposition to a regime, unfortunately, is not the same as opposition to the principles on which it is founded, and rejecting the manifestation of something without simultaneously rejecting its underlying moral foundation opens the door to a host of equally sinister alternatives.