Remembering Andrei D. Sakharov

[Octavio]

Sakharov is one of my heros, and what he had to say bears directly upon the choices Russians are making today. Here is a quote from his book, "My Country and the World" (A. Knopf, Inc, 1975, pp. 30-1):

"The consequences of the Party-State monopoly are especially destructive in the sphere of culture and ideology. The complete unification of ideology at all times and places -- from the school desk to the professional chair -- demands that people become hypocrites, timeservers, mediocre, and stupidly self-deceiving. The tragi-comic, ritualistic farce of the loyalty oath is played over and over, relegating to the background all considerations of practicality, common sense and human dignity.

"Writers, artists, actors, teachers and scholars are under such monstrous ideological pressure that one wonders why art and the humanities have not altogether vanished in our country. The influence of those same anti-intellectual factors on the exact sciences and the applied sciences is more indirect but no less destructive. A comparison of scientific, technological and economic achievements in the USSR and abroad makes this perfectly plain. It is no accident that for many years in our country new and promising scientific trends in biology and cybernetics could not develop normally, while on the surface out-and-out demagogy, ignorance, and charlatanism bloomed like gorgeous flowers. It is no accident that all the great scientific and technological discoveries of recent times -- quantum mechanics, new elementary particles, uranium fission, antibiotics and most of the new, highly effective drugs, transitors, electronic computers, the development of highly productive strains in agriculture, the discovery of other components of the 'Green Revolution' and the creation of new technologies in agriculture, industry and construction -- all of them happened outside our country.

"The significant achievements in the first decade of the space age, which were due to the personal qualities of the late academician S.P. Korolev and to certain fortuitous features of our programs for building military rockets, which made possible their direct use in space, constitute an exception which does not disprove the rule. And certain successes in military technology are the result of an enormous concentration of resources in that sphere."

Of course not only Russians, but all national publics would do well to keep their distance from a crippling absolutism, however seductive a siren song they might hear from a movement, party or politician.

It is the open liberal societies of the world which by trail and error, and by processes of public criticism and attempts at piecemeal improvement, have established most of the current technologies and defined the acceptable limits within which they operate.


Octavio

[Nonson]

And if you're too damn stupid to hear his words than you're already classified with the sub-sapiens. Peace

[gene_parrish]

Hello Octavio,
What you say has been known in the west for a half centry. I remeber reading that during ww 2 the rest of the world planted the eye of the pototao to grow a new plant but in Russia where people were starving to death the whole potatoe was planted for one plant.
Russian farmers tried to enlighten the government were sent to prison for going against the teachings of the Russian acadamy of science.
I have seen this in my own life: companys large and small that think they have the only knowledge worth knowing fall backward into an abys of ingornarance while all the while thinking how smart they are. This holds true to the indivuidals working for those companys and to people in their everyday lives.
Shareing knowledge is great and that is what I think we are doing now. I admit that a lot of igornance is shared too but with so many people involved on these post that the truth or near to the turth will prevail also what is true today may be wrong tomorrow.
I was certain that we were miles ahead of Russia on everything until I read the mir post. Now I have read up on Russian rockerty and have learned that they are considerably ahead of the US in Missille developement. That is why the US is sharing technology with Russia; now we both know more.
Gene
Gene

[Sato]

Octavio,

Thanks for the post on Sakharov. Another leader with the same quality of motivation and of similar intellectual stature, is Fang Lizhi, Chinese astrophysicist and social activist. Some words from a speech by Fang:

"....Human rights are fundamental privileges that people have from birth, such as the right to think and be educated, the right to marry, and so on. But we Chinese consider these rights dangerous. Although human rights are universal and concrete, we Chinese lump freedom, equality and brotherhood together with capitalism and criticize them all in the same terms. If we are the democratic country we say we are, these rights should be stronger here than elsewhere, but at present they are nothing more than an abstract idea. [Enthusiastic applause.]

"I feel that the first step toward democratization should be the recognition of human rights....But [in China] democratization has come to mean something performed by superiors on inferiors--a serious misunderstanding of democracy. [Loud applause.] Our government does not give us democracy simply by loosening our bonds a bit. This gives us only enough freedom to writhe a little. [Enthusiastic applause.] Freedom by decree is not fit to be called democracy, because...it fails to provide the most basic human rights....

"In a democratic nation democracy flows from the individual, and the government has responsibilities toward him....We must make our government realize that it is economically dependent on its citizens, because such is the basis of democracy. But feudal traditions are still strong in China; social relations are initiated by superiors and accepted by inferiors....

"People of other societies believe that criminal accusations arising from casual suspicion harm human dignity and privacy. In China, on the other hand, it is not only normal for me to inform on you...but considered a positive virtue. I would be praised for my alertness and contribution to class struggle in spite of my disrespect for democracy and human rights...."

Another dictatorship, another morally and intellectually concerned dissident addressing the same ills as did Sakharov.

S