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There is another attitude roughly like that : oh , that might be an
awful system but they are peaceful people, they don't want war,
they will never attack us, there is no point in building such terrible
deterrent devices because it harms everybody. We are safe. This
supposition is too rarely formulated clearly . But if people do say
so , then unlike the previous case, we can reasonably discuss and
show that it is not true , that the Soviet system has a built-in im–
perialistic tendency which has been confirmed in uncountable in–
stances in recent history; this can be shown . The third attitude is
that of those who think it is the best social system ever devised on
earth and it would be splendid to have it here . These three atti–
tudes are incompatible with each other, and I wish only that each
of them was clearly stated, whereas many pacifists somehow mix
the three without stating any of them clearly. This would be my
main appeal to those pacifists : they should choose between the
three attitudes, and they shouldn't mix up these incompatible
ideas.
I would add this: In the eyes of the Soviet leaders, Western peo–
ple who are politically active fall into three categories: first, en–
emies who are hated but respected as long as they are strong and
consistent; second, reliable agents ; and third, useful idiots. This
latter category consists of people who are flattered and kissed if
they appear in Moscow, but they are in fact treated with utter
contempt by the Soviet leaders ... and rightly so, I would say.
EK:
You have lived in Britain for thirteen years, I understand, and
you have visited the United States several times. Do you still think
there is a sort of spiritual recession as you thought while witnessing
the student movements of 1968? Do you think that the West is in
some ways crippled?
LK:
No. I don't think so. Of course, if we look at the history of the
last two decades there are ups and downs; there are moments of
spiritual disarray and moments of awakening or sobering; this is
probably inevitable. Nevertheless , I think the Western civilization
has as an essential component its ability of self-criticism. Without
this ability there would be no reason to keep this civilization alive .
It is inevitable that this self-criticism sometimes takes a masochis–
tic or suicidal character. But I am far from believing that the West
is doomed or that Western civilization has come to an end; I think
that the West has moral, spiritual and economic resources strong
enough to resist the encroachment of barbarism.
EK:
So in this sense you part ways with Solzhenitsyn?
