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PARTISAN REVIEW
pean reconciliation and reconstruction:
"It
can be said that this war
was the first general effort of humanity. The peace must be the
second.. .. The peace must bear fruit for all." Casting the balance
sheet of the Nazi regime and of his own earlier beliefs, Juenger views
the results with horror:
If
we should ever again be seized by a new arrogant pride in the range
and daring of our flight, in our spiritual wings, our wings of steel, it
should suffice, as a cure, to turn our eyes on those men who were driven
like cattle to the graves and crematory ovens where the executioner
awaited them. Their rags were taken away from them and in their naked–
ness they were slaughtered like sheep that had been shorn... . We have
seen the victims of this war. People of all nations have paid their
tribute to this dark procession. They all took part in the sufferings; and
therefore peace must bear fruit for all of them.
The peace must be a new constructive endeavor of all nations,
especially the nations of Europe:
This war must be won by all. This does not mean that there should not
be victors and vanquished. A clear-cut decision, on the contrary, is to
be welcomed; there should remain no corner that is not purified by
fire.... The peace cannot be a peace of compromise. But also, it should
not be a peace of force. The rules that governed the war must not govern
the peace. It would then be but a spurious peace, an overture to a new
civil war and to the constitution of new alliances and blocs.
The only way out is a United States of Europe. Technical and
economic problems must be regulated in common between the peoples
of Europe, but particular and differentiated cultures should con–
tinue: the separate peoples of Europe, possessing different languages,
laws, and mores, and differing in their religion and art, must con–
tinue to exist because "there can never be enough colors on this
palette." The premise of this European reconstruction
is
a revival of
Western humanism. But the humanist tradition is not enough, and the
new order needs to be anchored on a reinvigorated Christian Church.
The peace demands this new springtide of humanistic and Christian
values. Juenger, at last, allots some importance to the individual:
The fury of the elements makes the individual lose belief in his own
strength; he throws up his hands before the tremendous conflagration.
Through renunciation of the will he becomes architect of his own power–
lessness, and so is enslaved by fear and by those strong demons whose
force is rooted in the counterplay of hatred and terror.... Those powers
want to make man their servant, but they expect a kind of joyful ap–
plause from those who give up responsibility. . . . Against them we
must affirm that the responsibility of the individual is immense, and that
nobody can take this load from him. The whole world must appear before
each individual's conscience, and the person sit as judge over what is
just and unjust. ... Today more than ever, the individual has the chance
to do good.
Extended comment is perhaps unnecessary: Juenger has returned
to all the values he once despised: individualism,
humanitas,
peace,
