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PARTISAN REVIEW
Finally, the third role is that of the pure artist: like the dissident, he
doesn't glorify the State ; but, like the official writer, he avoids dispa–
raging it; those are not the terms by which he defines himself. He
writes for himself, for art and for eternity; in practice, he tends to
speak of the past and (or) of private life . Because of this he is mar–
ginal, but in the long run honesty pays : he is admired by all.
Confronting this "triangle," the situation in the West neverthe–
less doesn't reduce itself to a single point - that of the isolated in–
dividual who writes to whom no one pays attention ; such an image is
contradicted by another phenomenon, that of the "consecration of
the writer," (the title of a beautiful book by Paul Benichou) which
has been developing since the eighteenth century, and in the course
of which the intellectual has replaced the priest. It is true that when
culture is ruled only by the market economy, society has some diffi–
culty articulating standards for artists. It is still the case , however,
that the countries of the West are neither as atomized, nor as de–
prived of shared values, as modern nihilists like to proclaim. But
these values are of a special kind . Whereas in ideocracies (let us use
that term for both ancient theocracies and modern totalitarian
states) the adage reigns supreme - truth is one , error multiple - it's
just the opposite in democracies. Here, only error can be agreed
upon by consensus (it's what the laws condemn) , while each is free to
seek the good for himself.
If
someone finds it in alcohol or in heroin
we are not to be unduly excited . What is affirmed, therefore , is the
form, not the substance: the limits of the private realm. On the same
principle , no doctrine is prohibited because of its content, except one
which would impede the free circulation of doctrines and replace de–
bate with violence. We must, on the other hand , oppose the latter: if
the Weimar Republic had done so , it could have prevented the rise
of the Nazis .
At this point, it is time to clear up the misunderstanding which
holds that the disapproval of certain texts or images is inherently
reactionary and "rightist.» A journalist of
L
'evenement de jeudi
(a weekly
of the center) imagined two possible responses to the Pasqua exhibi–
tion :
"1)
to pass myself off as a woman of the Left, say that it's scan–
dalous [censorship], reeking of the Gestapo, and that I'll go right off
and sign a bloody petition for the rights of man; 2) take responsibil–
ity for, accept, the dose of Right slumbering in me, admit that what
I've seen [pornography] is putrid ." What a bizarre present to offer to
the Right : the exclusive defense of democratic values! Isn't being on
-the side of justice against sheer force (in this case, the force of the
- Fillpacchi gang's millions) a value worth defending? As for the rights
