On the Relentless Pursuit of Things

This new way of thinking, which had imposed on us its guidance, did not admit the existence of intrinsic evil in man nor did it see any higher task than the attainment of happiness on earth. It based modern Western civilization on the dangerous trend to worship man and his material needs. Everything beyond physical well-being and accumulation of material goods, all other human requirements and characteristics of a subtler and higher nature, were left outside the area of attention of state and social systems, as if human life did not have any superior sense. - Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Harvard Commencement Address, 1978

A friend pointed out this part of Solzhenitsyn's address to me, and I really like it. I'll examine this quotation in a later post, after I've had a chance to read it in context. I don't want to throw out my two cents without being sure that the address as a whole supports my interpretation of this part.