“4 — Sunday, Jase 26, 1988 = North Shore News’

Bos Hunter
: . sie y personal e., :

‘FRESH LOCAL

1 T
STRAW BERRIES

there really isn’t any question ofa
‘compromise: free existence. at sy
just not possible.. !

P |
“THE STRUGGLI E to ) be free, according lo freed Soviet
‘dissident Natan Sharansky, is harder. i in the liberal West,

> the Soviet sysiem! Sharunsky

than in Russia under the Communists. ; |

He isn't being facctious. Just :
profound. And it's good to hear:
an intelligent voice from the other ©
side recognizing a basic fact of life

ina modern democracy. 5

> We think we're free but few, if
any of us, really are. :

We are bound so much by con-
vention, habit, brainwashing,‘mass
conditioning, carly programming,

_ you name it, that it is something“of © |

an abuse’ of the word freeto’ 5
describe us. “
’ Specifically, Sharansky said on |
a recent radio show, while pro. +f;
moting his book about his nine i
years in prison courtesy of the
KGB: a j
“To be free ,-all Thiad to do’ was |
say no to the KGB. Tt was simple. :
**But in this free world, to be as
free as you were in prison, you m4
have to struggle for it. The struggle)
against evil, for being free,.con- | 1
tinues all your fife.” / pot
we) [think T understand what he
so means. When he was arrested and .
charged with treason, after organiz-'

ing what would be considered over |.

here rather mild protests)against

found himself in the Gulag alon
against the KGB thugs

He was spared the daily. beatings|
that others got for. the good reason):

: demanding his release. :
». Anstead of being clubbed,

Municipaliti “has*-req
eral assistance in a $15 billion:

cany part of it, thereby’ escaping the
present.

“Back inshis awit world” he could
enjoy the feelings of security and
confidence that bad once been,
Bivens in his fife

i Each’ time he replayed a section |

‘of his life, the picture became

More fine- tuncd,'more c richly deco; ;

vated, clearer. a cs

“For indi viduals in

i @ democracy, there :

really isn't an yo
question of aq,
compromise-free_
existence.| It’s Just
not possible.’’ oe
/ And after a while he began to"
glimmer the outlines of sense and® “
_ Purpose tn his existence.
fp: “He found he could eventually
take this material from his own

expericnice and life and startto — ~
const¢vct a new. world entirely in ‘

his mind.where he could live with

“his loved ones, and be free. :
+ ‘The KGB routinely ‘threatened |
him with death to keep up the »
psychological pressure, and he:

, countered that by “treating them

destroy | the world. you've Created in
your mind where you a are fi ree

s - iste over } here d nearly 6

You have to compromise to be
“able to enjoy_a family life.
You have to compromise ta have

~ seal friends.

You have to compromise withs..
colleagucs and employers and. cu
2 tomers’or you find a way lo, work ]
“entirely on your own. Good luck,
to you in this enterprise. i
You have to compromise, with al

least-three Jevels of government) Bl... seve esentee
every day, merely to. get to work. §  LQCAL BUNCHED y
As for your dreams of a ‘‘new a A] a
world,” the first and last com- : CARROTS if
promise is the terrible discovery |; :
that the art of the possible means
politics. :
: And politics is compromise in-
carnate. d.
. So where's your freedom?
Oh, it is there to be found i in they
moments, ithe details of life of

wa

tellectual can sce how tricky it is
here in the West to exercise our
freedam, there being so much:
pressure from so many quarters
for nothing but endless com- /
-promises.: iby
- Then again, ma be. that’ s what
freedom is.

* = Welcome to the bewildering)

“, Butit is nice that a Russian ‘|

. West, Natan.

This guy's crime, remember
, been to question the political.
system _
cry da
in-w} ich im

The difference belween tote itar-:
janism and d demociacy i is that’
‘under one’s;sten! famti-goveriiment "
| thoughts are oujlaw
he other they dre’ enshrines
called upon rit a duty
' One has td keep in mindtha
: there are st fl hundreds of thou

egree in
J can make ‘significan contributions