Paul Findlay
14 March 2006
Excerpt from The Brothers Karamazov
In The Brothers Karamazov there are many huge monologues. The following excerpt stood out to me amongst them.
This comes from Part Two, Book VI: The Russian Monk, Chapter 3: From the Discourses of the Elder Zosima, the section titled ”(e) Something Concerning the Russian Monk and His Possible Significance”
The world has proclaimed freedom, particularly of late, and yet what do we see in this freedom of theirs: nothing but servitude and suicide! For the world says: ‘You have needs, so satisfy them, for you have the same rights as the wealthiest and most highly placed of me. Do not be afraid to satisfy them, but even multiply them’ – that is the present-day teaching of the world. In that, too, they see freedom. And what is the result of this right to the multiplication of needs? Among the rich solitariness and spiritual suicide, and among the poor – envy and murder, for while they have being given rights, they have not yet been afforded the means with which to satisfy their needs. Assurance is offered that as time goes by the world will become more united, that it will form itself into a brotherly communion by shortening distance and transmitting thoughts into the air. Alas, do not believe in such a unification of men. In constructing freedom as the multiplication and speedy satisfaction of needs, they distort their own nature, for they engender within themselves many senseless and stupid desires, habits and most absurd inventions. They live soley for envy, for the love of the flesh and for self-conceit.
Before and after the above excerpt, there is not a paragraph in sight.
The Brothers Karamazov was published in 1880.
Paul at 6:14 am