I like Mumford & Sons, a British folk rock band with a hard-driving sound that will stomp a foot numb. I haven’t looked them up in a long while, but that cave song of theirs has seeded my ears. I remember it regularly.

Banjo player Winston Marshall posted a few paragraphs today on why he is leaving a group he loves. It boils down to the reaction the band got over one of his tweets. He tried to address it, only to earn more backlash. And though the reaction was both ridiculous and typical of current political foolishness, he felt he needed to step away from the band to cause the others musicians the least damage.

So why leave the band?

On the eve of his leaving to the West, Solzhenitsyn published an essay titled ‘Live Not By Lies’. I have read it many times now since the incident at the start of March. It still profoundly stirs me.

“And he who is not sufficiently courageous to defend his soul — don’t let him be proud of his ‘progressive’ views, and don’t let him boast that he is an academician or a people’s artist, a distinguished figure or a general. Let him say to himself: I am a part of the herd and a coward. It’s all the same to me as long as I’m fed and kept warm.”

I gather the band has talked about it fully. I hope they support Marshall even while letting him leave. For the rest of us, let’s consider ahead of time how to defend our souls when the time comes.