As a great humanist and artist, Tolstoy was deeply aware of and sympathetic to the prevailing feelings of the common people, although he was an eminent member of the Russian aristocracy. In these essays written between 1890 and 1910, the year of his death, the constant theme is the struggle between his conscience and pacifist convictions, and the society of violence from which he could not extricate himself, and for which he felt personally responsible.
In Why do Men Stupefy Themselves, Tolstoy acutely observes the connection between substance abuse and mental disorder, which he believes is caused by man’s struggle with his own conscience. On a personal level, man attempts to silence the voice of conscience by stupefying himself through drugs and diversions; on a societal level, by redirecting outward the demand of conscience, e.g., enforcing moral demands on other people and nations through violence and war. Tolstoy forewarned his readers about impending unrest and bloodshed. He was prescient: the 20th century is the bloodiest in human history, beginning with World War I in 1914 and the Russian Revolution in 1917.
Moral Awakening
When an individual passes from one period of life to another, a time comes when he cannot go on in senseless activity and excitement as before, but has to understand that although he has outgrown what before used to direct him, this does not mean that he must live without any reasonable guidance, but rather that he must formulate for himself an understanding of life corresponding to his age, and having elucidated it must be guided by it. And in the same way a similar time must come in the growth and development of humanity. … the inherent contradiction of human life has now reached an extreme degree of tension: on the one side there is the consciousness of the beneficence of the law of love, and on the other the existing order of life which has for centuries occasioned an empty, anxious, restless, and troubled mode of life, conflicting as it does with the law of love and built on the use of violence.
Solidarity in Responsibility
Everything now being done in Russia is done in the name of the general welfare, in the name of the protection and tranquillity of the people of Russia. And if this be so, then it is also done for me who live in Russia. For me, therefore, exists the destitution of the people deprived of the first and most natural right of man – the right to use the land on which he is born; for me those half-million men torn away from wholesome peasant life and dressed in uniforms and taught to kill; for me that false so-called priesthood whose chief duty it is to pervert and conceal true Christianity; for me all these transportations of men from place to place; for me these hundreds of thousands of hungry migratory workmen; for me these hundreds of thousands of unfortunates dying of typhus and scurvy in the fortresses and prisons which are insufficient for such a multitude ; for me the mothers, wives, and fathers of the exiles, the prisoners, and those who are hanged, are suffering; … ; and for me exists this terrible embitterment of man against his fellow man.
The Scaffolding
Our true life is not this external, material life that passes before our eyes here on earth, it is the inner life of our spirit, for which the visible life serves only as a scaffolding – a necessary aid to our spiritual growth. The scaffolding itself is only of temporary importance, and after it has served its purpose is no longer wanted but even becomes a hindrance.
Seeing before him an enormously high and elaborately constructed scaffolding, while the building itself only just shows above its foundations, man is apt to make the mistake of attaching more importance to the scaffolding than to the building for the sake of which alone this temporary scaffolding has been put up.
The Fear of Death
I like my garden, I like reading a book, I like caressing a child. By dying I lose all this, and therefore I do not wish to die, and I fear death.
It may be that my whole life consists of such temporary worldly desires and their gratification. If so I cannot help being afraid of what will end these desires. But if these desires and their gratification have given way and been replaced in me by another desire –the desire to do the will of God, to give myself to Him in my present state and in any possible future state– then the more my desires are changed the less I fear death, and the less does death exist for me. And if my desires be completely transformed, then nothing but life remains and there is no death.
References:
- Tolstoy, Leo. Recollections And Essays. Internet Archive. Accessed December 21, 2020. https://archive.org/details/recollectionsand035475mbp