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PARTISAN REVIEW
Jesus Christ is forgotten, namely: that the earthly values can
never be absolute. However strongly one might condemn the
greedy, the exploiters, the cruel- and of course , this is quite in
keeping with the Christian teaching- this condemnation never
leads to an idea of a perfect society or fraternity which might be
established by violence.
EK:
Let us suppose there is a place where people agree with this
theological and zealous blend that I mentioned. As in "the grand
inquisitor," they simply renounce their liberty for the sake of those
other beliefs and for the promise of bread and equality . What can
you say about it?
LK:
It is quite conceivable that a revolution which probably will
lead, ultimately, to a totalitarian regime is, at one stage or
another, supported by a majority, or at least by a very substantial
minority. What can we say about it? Well, we should stress that
the values we cherish as fundamental for European civilizations
include not only the principle of majority rule but the principle of
human rights. There are rights - and this is an important element
in our tradition - that are invested in individuals only and which
no majority is entitled to abrogate.
If
not, it would be in keeping
with the principle of democracy that fifty-one percent of the
population massacre the other forty-nine percent for any reason .
If
we think that the verdict of the majority alone counts, then we
should support anything which the majority might decide to do
whether in Iran or in Hitler's Germany. But the political and
social values of the European tradition would be void and mean–
ingless if the principle of majority rule were not limited by the
principle of human rights.
EK:
On the one hand you acknowledge that the Soviet system is a
historical novelty: an all-powerful system that has wiped out civil
society, a state that embodies everything: legislates , judges, ex–
ecutes . On the other hand, you have also said it is a system which
is disintegrating out of lack of self-correcting mechanisms. How
do you reconcile these two views?
LK:
I don't see a contradiction.
If
I said it is something historically
new - and I think it is - it is not new in all respects. Many people
have pointed out some antecedents of Sovietism in Russian his–
tory . But I am not going to dwell on that subject. Certainly this
system has historical roots, and it is a kind of return to barbarity ,
a reversal of the process of Westernization which Russia under–
went, especially from the 1860s until the First World War. After
