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goods it would like to deliver to ease the social discontent. The
Solidarity movement, on the other hand, has no strength or means
to change the situation radically. So there is a kind of impasse.
Nevertheless, it is not a stable impasse.
It
is not likely that this
situation will last for very long, because the tensions are strong,
and the hatred accumulated by the military dictatorship after the
crushing of Solidarity is unlikely to abate. No radical solutions
have been worked out either by the government or by Solidarity.
The government takes some steps in order to appease the popula–
tion, but it cannot, of course, appease both the population and the
Kremlin. Therefore, it inconsistently uses threats and repressions
on the one hand, and takes appeasement steps on the other. None
of them is sufficiently consistent either to intimidate the society or
to appease it. It is therefore likely that we will be witnesses of new
struggles in the coming years. As to the outcome, we can only
speculate upon it.
EK:
Isaiah Berlin distinguishes between hedgehogs and foxes. The
hedgehogs - the ideological thinkers - usually avoid empirical
truth with all its diversity and paradoxes. The foxes are not afraid
to lose themselves in plurality. Why can't the hedgehog be more
like a fox?
LK:
I think none of us can be totally satisfied with the restrictions
imposed by empiricism. We are all committed to values which
transcend empirical inquiry. We all have hopes and ideas which
we are unable to substantiate properly within the framework of
empiricism. Without that, life probably would be unbearable.
It
is natural, and there is nothing wrong in that we have hopes,
faiths and commitments. What is wrong is to be led by commit–
ments into wishful thinking and to replace what can be empirically
known by ideological images. We should only make a distinction
between what is and what is not empirically provable and never
renounce the use of rational argument and of empirical proofs in
the areas where they are applicable.
EK:
Give to reason what belongs to reason, and to faith ... . It re–
minds me of..
LK:
Yes: Pascal.
