FOURTH WORLD
39
ject; will it disintegrate as a political entity and sink to the Czech or
Slovak speaking population producing steel and grain?" But this is not
the Czech question, for the Czech question must be solved in its global
context. Their present crisis has uncovered the roots of a European and
world crisis, of which it is an indivisible part. There are wider implica–
tions here than those of international politics; for they must realize that
their crisis cannot be solved in terms of politics - modern politics are
characterized as manipulation of the masses. The Czech crisis can only
be solved by eliminating the cause, that is, the system of universal
manipulation.
In my opinion, the Czech people have a real possibility of finding
an alternative, based on an entirely new conception of man, existence,
nature, truth. Their possibility is based on the variety of experiences
they are able to call upon: in a comparatively short period, Czecho–
slovakia has tried out in practice several kinds of theories - monarchy,
bourgeois democracy, fascist dictatorship, Stalinism and a few months
of democratic socialism. The youth especially have learned to appreciate
the advantages of a socialist society. They are not interested in a return
to prewar conditions, and they do not do what their fathers do - com–
pare the present with a capitalist order, and therefore excuse the
blatant mistakes and deformations of socialism. They compare instead
the theory which they have been taught with the practice which, due
to pseudointerpretations of Marxism, produces in the socialist countries
today many of the features which Marx originally attacked in bourgeois
society. For them, no doctrine goes unquestioned, nothing is sacred, no
subjects are taboo.
Therefore, young people could logically fit August 21 and its
consequences into their experience without suffering their parents'
trauma, the feeling that the ground had slipped away from under their
feet. So in the first days of the invasion they could paint swastikas into
the Soviet star and cover the occupants' tanks with the same sign; so,
after the publication of the Moscow agreements they could call out
slogans like "A Second Munich." They stopped equating the Soviet
Union with socialism a long time ago, and as the Prague graffitti
demonstrated, they did not hesitate to draw comparisons:
"The Germans wanted us for a thousand years, the Russians for all
eternity," "Once brothers - now murderers," "Cain was also a bl'other."
"We survived occupation by our enemies, we shall survive occupation
by our friends," "At last the Soviet Union has caught up with and
surpassed all the imperialist countries," "When despots turn to terror,
we
can
sleep easily: it is no deception."
