What a Russian novelist can teach us about blame, freedom, and moral fatigue BASIT MEHRAJ In an age of instant outrage and shallow distraction, it may seem odd to turn to a 19th–century Russian novelist to understand our own condition in today’s world. Yet Fyodor Dostoevsky, with his haunted characters and relentless probing of the human soul, feels uncannily close. As we scroll through our feeds, argue over politics, and quietly struggle with despair, his novels whisper a disturbing question: what if the greatest crisis of our time is not only political or economic, but spiritual and moral?