FRAN<;:OIS FUIUT
437
cratic society allow the indefinite growth of the state to the detriment of
the freedom, the initiative, and even the public spirit of its members.
[n the short term, we can expect that the collapse of the Eastern
regimes will signal a transformation of the political debate. Once it is
clear that there will be no purely socialist societies, nor (in the economic
sense of the term) any perfectly "liberal" ones, what will be the point of
invoking these metaphysical constructions? Those who complain about
the current aridity of public life are often those who contribute most to
it through their own indifference to change. Nowhere is it written that
the citizens of a modern society must choose between agitating in favor
of extravagant ideas and immersing themselves in their private lives. The
great thing is to see to it that they are not confined to such a choice.
In the longer run, but the sooner the better, the end of the com–
munist idea should force us all to reexamine in depth the political culture
in which Europe has been living for the past two hundred years. The
democratic idea is more than ever our guiding principle, but it is this
idea, precisely, that has just presented us with an earthquake for its birth–
day. Is it conceivable that we can go on our way unaffected when the
whole earth seems to have trembled around us and we contemplate a
landscape half-covered with ruins - and when the great source-idea, free–
dom, is looking more attractive than ever? The relationship between
democracy and Christianity, between the republic and progress, between
the state and its citizens, the dialectic of formal and social rights, modern
man's aggressive approach to nature - these are all questions that can no
longer be addressed today as they were addressed yesterday. The list is
long, and for those who wish to reflect upon it there will be no lack of
work to be done .
Translated from the French
by
H.
J.
Kaplan
WALTER LAQUEUR
Intellectuals and the Failure of
Communism
The intellectual impact of the collapse of communism in the Soviet
Union and Eastern Europe may well be less palpably felt in America than
in Europe or the Far East for some time to come. There are a number
of reasons why this is so. The study of the Soviet Union, of Eastern Eu–
rope, and of the third world has been strongly influenced for about two
decades by a school of thought that in many articles and books, confer-
