Welcome to Breakpoint, a daily look in an ever-changing culture through the lens of

unchanging truth.

For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street.

Though most commencement speeches are things worthy of forgetting. In June of 1978 at Harvard University, America heard the prophetic voice of

renowned Soviet dissident Alexander Solzhenitson.

Boldly, and without apology, Soltson, it's in challenge the politically correct yet broadly accepted ideas of the day, and he was booed for it.

His stunning address might have made those who were assembled there that day uncomfortable,

but his words have proven true. In fact, they're even more relevant today for us than they were when he said them.

Now why would an audience boost such a moral giant, a Nobel Prize winner,

someone who'd stared down communist gulags? Well perhaps it was because they expected him to

direct his moral condemnations only at communism.

But instead he aimed at both communism and the West,

especially the West, and in the process,

he courageously spoke of something reviled by elites on both sides of the Atlantic.

Truth, here's what Sultan has said, quote,

truth alludes us if we do not concentrate our attention totally on its pursuit.

But even while it alludes us, the illusion of knowing it still

lingers and leads to many misunderstandings. Also truth seldom is pleasant.

It is almost invariably bitter."

While in what was a profound analysis of the prevailing worldview in America,

Sultanates and said that the West had exchanged belief in unchanging truth for a relentless and a superficial legalism.

The most tragic and significant result he said was the absence of civil courage.

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