Lessons from the Gulags – Part 2

As I mentioned in the first installment, Alexander Solzhenitsyn was both burdened and blessed with the misery of the Russian gulags. Burdened because he was a victim and witness to horrors that most cannot begin to imagine. Blessed because he learned the lessons that the gulags had to teach.

I want to explore one such lesson here today. A lesson about the face of evil and the ways in which ideology gives evil the necessary fuel to really take off and soar into space.

Two Kinds of Villain

In Part 1 of The Gulag Archipelago, Solzhenitsyn offers some insights that are well worth considering. He contrasts two kinds of bad guys in order to make a profound point. The first is Macbeth and the second is the demon himself, Stalin. The point that Solzhenitsyn wants to make is that there is a fundamental difference between these two villains. In the first place, Macbeth does evil, but he does it in a way that is conscious and self-aware of the evil. He suppresses his conscience, defies King and country, and makes himself into a murderer. His conscience devours him for it. A villain like this is severely limited in the amount of evil he can commit. He is a light weight. An amateur villain. He knows nothing of what true depravity looks like. A man bound by good sense and conscience does not have the requisite state of mind to really cause harm. Solzhenitsyn says this;

To do evil a human being must first of all believe that what he’s doing is good, or else that it’s a well-considered act in conformity with natural law. Fortunately, it is in the nature of the human being to seek a justification for his actions… The imagination and the spiritual strength of Shakespeare’s evildoers stopped short at a dozen corpses. Because they had no ideology.[1]

He understood that the ordinary image bearer of God could not easily graduate from the amateur leagues of wickedness without some way to guard his conscience and soul. Solzhenitsyn saw that this necessary protection was ideology. In the case of Stalin, we see this second class of villain. A true professional. Decked out in the ideological armour of communism, Stalin piled the bodies in the tens of millions. The screams of men being tortured to death, the harrowing cries of women raped in the camps, the sobbing children dying of starvation… none of these ever penetrated the armour and stabbed into the heart of Stalin. Not only did he never shed a tear for his victims, rather he was convinced that he was on the side of the angels.

Ideology—that is what gives evildoing its long-sought justification and gives the evildoer the necessary steadfastness and determination.[2]

Through the lenses of history, it is easy to look on Stalin and condemn his evil and wicked heart. It is easy to see that his motivations can only have come from the pits of hell. I would go so far as to say that his justifications were a mere smokescreen for his truly wicked desires.

Was he motivated by care and concern for the proletariat? Did he really hope to usher in the communist utopia? Was brotherly love and freedom from want important to Stalin? Absolutely not! You cannot say that in view of the bodies. The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? (Jeremiah 17:9). The pure of heart cannot so easily stumble into this kind of destruction while trying to do good.

Are You an Ideological Villain?

The reason why this lesson is so important to learn is because, to this day, we are surrounded by ideological villains. Be that as it may, many are unable to see it. Either they are deceived by the constant declarations of the villains who claim to be earnest about doing good, or they themselves are guarded by the same ideological armour.

We see young women, poor lambs, who rescue stray animals and only drink ethically sourced coffee, hire assassins to tear their unborn babies limb from limb. The assassin then reassembles the corpse on the cold medical tray to make sure he hasn’t missed anything. A woman like this is an ideological villain. Then there are those who defend her with arguments like, “You don’t know her situation or what she’s been through. What if she wants to work or study? What if she is having financial issues?” These kinds of responses can only come from someone who is equally draped in the same armour.

One key point to see here is this; someone’s statement of positive intentions should do nothing to dissuade you of their evil.

In fact, framing evil practice as coming from a place of goodness and love is a key sign that someone is radically possessed by evil in ways that are far more frightening. In speaking about ideology, Solzhenitsyn says;

That is the social theory which helps to make his acts seem good instead of bad in his own and others’ eyes, so that he won’t hear reproaches and curses but will receive praise and honors.[3]

This ought to give all of us pause. We should all consider whether we may have fallen prey to some ideology that will give the evil desires of our hearts sufficient steadfastness and determination to persevere. Is my embrace of LGBTQ ideology really a compassionate act or is it an encouragement of society destroying licentiousness? Is my “anti-racism” truly a concern for my oppressed neighbours or is it an outlet for my ethnic hatred? Are my socialist tendencies really motivated by my concern for the poor, or am I wretchedly envious?

What if Jacinda Ardern isn’t all that Kind?

Here in Auckland, we are currently experiencing our 11^th week of lockdown. As a direct result of our government’s actions, tens of thousands of businesses have been forced to close for good. I cannot begin to imagine the pain these people and their families have felt. I was guttered to hear of one butcher owner who committed suicide as his business went into liquidation, leaving behind a wife. “Some nights I’ve sat there crying, wondering what I’m going to do next. It’s just not fair”[4] he said, a few days before it all became too much.

The government have inflicted 100+ billion dollars worth of debt upon us, our children, and our grandchildren. Would we have been okay with 10 weeks of lockdown if there were no subsides or financial support for anyone? Would we have remained locked down if we had to foot the bill ourselves? Obviously not. However, some of us are more than content to have our children and grandchildren pay for it. Is this not hatred for all the neighbours who will inherit our debt?

Our Prime Minister and her cronies have mandated vaccines for large swathes of the population, without which people will lose their jobs. For failing to get the vaccine, people are having their livelihoods taken away from them. Biblically, taking away a man’s livelihood is on par with taking his life.[5] Because of our government’s actions, people are now having to choose between giving up their livelihood or going against their consciences.

Our government has arrogated to itself unprecedented powers and has extended its reach into our lives in ways never seen before. Our Prime Minister smirkingly admitted to creating two classes in society, where one will enjoy freedoms and rights not extended to the other.[6] Medical procedures that do cause severe side effects, including death, can be mandated from on high.

The gathered worship of God has been deemed “non-essential” by our ruling elites. Baptisms and the celebration of the Lord’s Supper have been put on pause for 20 percent of the year thus far. The spiritual cost of this cannot be measured metrically, but I assure you, the church is more essential to the good order of society than the civil government. Not to mention the eternal blessings the God gives the world through the church.

On top of all of this, our government has caused weddings to be cancelled, families to miss funerals for loved ones, people have had to die alone without anyone to be there with them, they have splashed billions of our dollars on their pet hobbies, and there have been countless other shameless violations of the lives of New Zealand citizens.

If you can see all of this and think that this behaviour is good and warranted, then I fear that you may be possessed by the same villainous ideology.

But… What About…

They are doing this to protect life, aren’t they? This needs to happen so that the hospitals don’t get overwhelmed. Lockdowns come from a ‘pro-life’ ethic. Leadership is hard, so we should be less critical of their actions. I disagree with some of their decisions, but their hearts are in the right place.

How many of these excuses have we heard in the last year? I have lost count. To reiterate a point I made earlier, someone’s statement of positive intentions should do nothing to dissuade you of their evil.

Now, sinful governments can, by God’s common grace, enact good and just laws, but we must recognise that these laws will be inconsistent with their worldview. When we look at the COVID response, it is clear that all the measures taken are not an act of inconsistent goodness, rather, the response flows directly out of their twisted ideology.

The ideology at work here is the deification of the state. In other words, people ascribe to the state certain things that should be ascribed to God alone. Omnipotence: only God is entirely autonomous and unrestrained. He alone is the sovereign giver of rights and freedoms; however, those possessed by ideology are more than willing to grant the state authority without limits. This is why statements like, “if you get vaccinated, you can enjoy more freedoms”, can make sense to people. Freedoms aren’t something given to us by God that the state is obliged to recognise. Not at all. Freedoms are bestowed on us by the state. Omnicompetence: Only God can sovereignly rule all the affairs of man. He alone can speak into every area of life and determine how best to behave, for he alone is competent to do so. By his grace, he has given us tremendous freedoms and liberties to make decisions for ourselves. Idealogues believe that the government is competent to micromanage every area of our lives from birth to death. They think this is to be preferred. It’s not like we can do the cost benefit analysis better than the government. Especially when weighing up whether to attend a friend’s funeral or not. Examples of this nature could be multiplied all day.

Some will still not be convinced that they have adopted a wicked ideology. It is to be expected. Solzhenitsyn recounts occasions where die-hard communists would be devoured by the gulags and still remain loyal to the cause. The scary thing is that we are not at all different from those supporting Stalin. We can just as easily be captured by ideology.

Let this be a plea to those who still wish to hold our government in high regard. An exhortation to those who mainly see good in the COVID response. Abandon the idol now. Stop supporting, defending, and encouraging the wicked actions of this government. Your good intentions will not absolve your guilt, nor will they minimise it.

“Good intentions” are the norm for all who wish to become true monsters. I would also suggest that the “good intentions” are well rooted in our sinful nature and are nothing more than exceedingly bad intentions in camouflage.

Look at all the harm they are doing. Look at their other policies too: abortion, hate speech laws, conversion practice prohibition and euthanasia. Listen to the Christians who are showing clearly the wicked roots of their politics. After doing all that, ask yourself, “Am I an idealogue? Is it possible that my defence of the government’s COVID policies are ideologically driven?”

8 See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. (Colossians 2:8)

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[1] Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr. The Gulag Archipelago (Vintage Classics). Random House. (p. 77)

[2] Ibid

[3] Ibid

[4] https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/121491315/south-auckland-mad-butcher-owner-dies-suddenly-after-business-goes-into-liquidation

[5] See Deuteronomy 24:6

[6] https://www.dailywire.com/news/new-zealands-prime-minister-on-if-vaccine-certificates-are-about-creating-two-classes-of-people-yep