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fect on us either of a reversal to some form of Stalinism or of the
added strength of a possibly revitalized Russia.
5. More important is the meaning of events in Russia for
liberal and left thinking.
If
the Soviet Union has not killed the dream
of socialism by a rule of terror, the present appeal of Gorbachev for a
freer market and the restoration of the profit motive, even if much of
it is rhetoric and proceeds cautiously, must further put into question
the viability of socialism - an ideal the satellite countries in fact left
far behind a long time ago .
6. The new praise of democracy in Russia, however limited,
should lead liberals to be less hostile to Western democracy and
more critical of autocratic regimes in Asia and Africa.
7. Now that Gorbachev is pushing for intellectual freedom ,
again some of it rhetorically, how can so many liberals and so much
of the left fail to be more critical of the denial of human rights in
Cuba and Nicaragua? How long can they continue to support these
oppressive regimes , without at least calling for their democratiza–
tion? Of course, there is the unreconstructed left , a leading member
of which is Alexander Cockburn , who declared recently in
The
Nation
that Gorbachev has gone too far .
8. How long can we overlook the contradiction between the
Soviet Union's continuing to bolster repression in the satellite coun–
tries and in Cuba and Nicaragua, while urging more democracy at
home?
9. Now that Marxism, along with God , is being questioned in
Russia, the academic Marxism being revived on American cam–
puses has become meaningless and anachronistic.
10.
It is time for American intellectuals to re-examine their
own ideological commitments in relation to the realities of the mo–
ment and to stop repeating the cliches of the past. The Soviet turn
should dispel illusions about Cuba and Nicaragua, and querulous
criticism of Israel should be seen as not furthering either Israel's or
America's interests. However, the basic question is our view of the
Soviet Union-which is trying to reform its economy and loosen in–
tellectual restriction , but has not subordinated its own interests to
those of America. The truth is that
glasnost
is Russia's problem, not
ours. Now is the time for intellectuals to stop running after strange
gods.
w.p.
