I'd make a joke about getting things "straight", except I'm really embarrassed about the mistake. Thanks for catching it. I disagree with your interpretation. The cruelties are not hidden -- I work in child welfare and nothing much has changed under the sun. He could help prevent the cruelties by reallocating some of those resources AND he could help mitigate the trauma. That's what we do here every day and it does matter. Actually, though you proved my point. I read this book in a political theory class that was railing against post-modern "relevatism" in politics. Decrying child abuse while throwing your hands up in the air b/c to actually do something would cost you personally is ridiculous. That absurdity became clear to me when I read this passage. The impact of moral decay on the individual characters was certainly impactful, but the impact on others -- the helpless innocent children standing in for the serfs of course -- should be the discussion. And it wasn't. At least not at LSU. I guess it is interesting b/c Solzhenitsyn struck me on exactly that personal level, but Dostoevsky was the complete opposite -- very much about societal structures. Hmm ...