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Russians. I'm not sure that they remain neutral all the time : and
their position occasionally can be used by dogmatic Marxists in Latin
America.
EK:
It
is
being used, of course .
JK:
This goes along with my original statement, when I said that the
French try to be independent from America as well as Russia, and
that their position is not always so ideal, or so moral or neutral.
Some practical policies, as for instance the support of the Third
World, objectively happen to be helpful to the Russians.
EK:
Yes . Are you saying that French politicians are aware of this
and cannot do anything about it?
JK:
Some of them are aware. The Mitterrand government is quite
heterogeneous . I suppose that some of its members are aware and
think it's okay; others are aware and try to prevent it. But neither
their external policy nor their internal policy is very coherent.
EK:
Isn't that always the problem with democracy, where whatever
you do is open and discussed publicly, and certain consequences fol–
low from that alone? Since we've covered a lot of ground, I want to
ask you one last question. You've been coming to America quite reg–
ularly in recent years. Do you have any new impressions, other than
those we already have talked about?
JK:
It is difficult to have general impressions because I see only some
people from the universities and a few intellectuals around publish–
ing houses . I have the impression that the problems about leftist ori–
entations, the sort of naive enthusiasm, is less widespread than some
years ago, and that the Reagan policies generate very critical atti–
tudes. Nevertheless, the people I meet in the universities now may
be more doubtful about their ideological choices than before, even if
they don't always revise these choices , although they seem less con–
vinced of their ultimate truth. Also, I think that more and more
Americans are interested in a sort of European way of thinking, of
living. I read, for instance, some articles on feminism and then dis–
cussed them with friends, and they thought that American feminism
had gone into a decline. So they proposed to fight this decline by
borrowing elements that have always been a part of the French femi–
nist discourse - such simple things as not systematically rejecting men
but living with men, and not considering maternity or seduction to
be in opposition to the glorious image of woman . And I noted much
more interest in European culture and, in particular, French cul–
ture. I also have been struck by the decline of some well-established
university reputations and by the fact that a number of state univer-
a
