WILLIAM PHILLIPS
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there has been a sharp swing of OpInlOn for some time to the
left and the right . The left - and many liberals - reject anything
with a taint of conservatism, while the right will not countenance
anything associated with radicalism or liberalism.
The Congressional hearings, for example, were a theatrical il–
lustration of the division of the nation into support of the
contras
by
much of the right and opposition to them by the left, most of the
liberals, the media, and a large number of Democrats . In the past,
liberals occupied the space between radicals and conservatives, but
lately liberals have been influenced by the current politics of the left,
thus abandoning their historic role, and leaving a large hole in the
political mind of the country. As a result, there has been a dearth of
social commentators who have not established themselves at either
end of the political spectrum.
It
would seem that recent history has
corroborated Yeats's famous lines about the center not holding-in a
world driven to extremes.
The crucial debate in Germany is essentially between the left
that continues to emphasize guilt over the Nazi past and opposes the
revival of nationalism, and conservative historians who argue it is
time for Germans to stop drowning themselves in guilt and try to
restore some kind of national pride and consciousness. Jurgen
Habermas has been one of the most prominent critics of the new
right in Germany and has maintained that they represent a danger–
ous revival of nationalism. The conservatives have responded that
the left underestimates the Soviet threat and encourages a perma–
nent state of political demoralization of the German nation.
Clearly, both sides have a point. As the left insists, the Nazi
past cannot be forgotten. But , on the other hand, the memory
should not obstruct the development of a national will and the pur–
suit of national interests. After all, most Germans today are too
young to bear any responsibility for Hitler. Many of the conser–
vatives, however, in their zeal to free Germany from the paralysis
induced by guilt, have denied the uniqueness of the Holocaust by
making it a part of world history .
It
is true, as some of them claim,
that Gulag in its own way was also monstrous , but this does not
lessen the monstrosity of the Holocaust. The argument has to do
with the question of uniqueness, for if the Holocaust is not unique it
is more easily forgettable. I see no way of settling this issue except by
acknowledging that the genocidal nature of the Holocaust and its
systematization of killing made it unique, but that Gulag also was
one of the greatest of human disasters - and a parallel form of mass
