OCTAVIO PAZ
379
We cannot have any confidence in these states if we think in
realistic terms, and we can feel no solidarity with them in terms of
principles.
The defense of that which can be defended in "European" soci–
eties is not possible unless the peoples of those countries abandon
their apathy and their sense of private rights (the disgraceful state of
sleeping France offers today the most grievous example of both af–
flictions), unless they come to their senses, take on leadership roles
in political activity, fight again to make history instead of submitting
to it.
If
they do take these steps, decisive repercussions in Eastern
Europe and in many nations of the Third World cannot fail to take
place.
If
they continue as they are now, neither the Pershing missiles
nor the MX will prevent the worst: total war or the gradual domesti–
cation of Europe, as a prelude to its total subjection by Russian stra–
tegic planning.
To work for that reawakening is the only
realistic
objective those
who desire to defend the defensible in European history and society
can espouse .
Octavio Paz
WHICH LATIN AMERICA?
Cornelius Castoriadis's essay appeared in a shorter form,
in
Le Monde
some months ago. More than one of its ideas is applica–
ble to the current situation in Mexico and Latin America in general.
It
is because of this relevance that we reproduced it in
Vuelta,
despite
the fact that Castoriadis was writing basically for a European audi–
ence. In Europe the theme of the defense of the West is being widely
discussed, and Castoriadis analyzes the simplistic theories mouthed
by the right, the left, the pacifists, and the ecologists. These latter,
by the way, equate, as do so many Latin American intellectuals,
Russian totalitarianism with United States imperialism. Castoriadis
Editor's Note: Translated from the Spanish
by
Alfred
J.
MacAdam.