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even an East-West conflict; that the West, Europe, may simply
surrender, and a very dangerous age of the end of civilization, the
end of ideology, may emerge. .
So now let me say a few words about the role of dissidents in
this context. I'm speaking as a Slovak dissident. We have a very
big worldwide organization, though we are a very small nation,
called the Slovak World Congress. And we have developed a the–
ory, an economic theory, whose point of departure is the Judeo–
Christian philosophy of man,
to
be projected into economic
categories and theories. And as far as foreign policy is concerned,
also the effort here, by the Congress, the State Department, and
also, recently in Germany too, with a number of politicians and
organizations, is a strategy for peace and freedom.
We do not think that we dissidents are wiser or more moral
or have the inherent right to become advisers of the country where
we live. But we have, first of all, the advantage of living in a free
country; and after our experience we appreciate the freedom here
far more than you who were born here and have lived here all
your life and take everything for granted and don't see the great
achievements of this country. On the other hand, we have first–
hand experience of where a society ends up if the system is not
based on human values. The issue is not that the system has to be
based on "un"human values in order
to
be inhuman; the mere
fact that it is not based on human values makes it inhuman.
I was deeply impressed when I heard this morning's two
speakers-writers who deeply realize the importance of empha–
sizing human values in art, in literature. And, consequently, you
should not be surprised that, as both Mr. Nekrasov and Mr.
Aksyonov said, the scope of Soviet, of Russian literature is far
wider than it is here, because it deals with all aspects of the end–
less dimensions of human beings and not just with those aspects
that make for bestsellers.
In
this sense I think that our task is–
and I'm particularly happy that we can discuss it with such a
scholar of the opposite school as Professor Bell-our task is
to
emphasize the importance of human values, the importance of
human ideology, the importance of throwing overboard the so–
called technocratic or econometric methods that apply only to
what is quantifiable.
We are living in a world where only the quantifiables, or
pragmatic values, are taken into consideration. And I am deeply
