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PARTISAN REVIEW
utopia of liberal capitalism. The utopia of liberal capitalism seeks to
combine the principle of the free market with the practice of a strong
police state. The police dictatorship of General Pinochet combined with
the market economics of Milton Friedman is thus supposed to furnish a
new model of the road to prosperity. Currently, we see various attempts
to tap into populist moods and rhetoric beginning to dominate our
public discourse. One could say that the Robespierre of our times has
joined with the De Maistre of our times. The Phrygian red cap of the
Jacobin becomes part of the executioner's uniform as he beheads the
insubordinate to the applause of De Maistre in
Les Soirs de St. Petersburg.
How can one oppose all this? One can and should, as always, oppose
this with Jefferson's and Paine's ideas of the natural rights of people to
freedom under the rule of law. For it is freedom within the framework
of law that constitutes the essence of democratic order. [t is not likely
that the long debate over the genesis of totalitarian systems will end
soon. There will still be those who see in totalitarianism the triumph of
the striving for absolute salvation, the victory of irrationalism and mys–
ticism. And there will be those who view totalitarianism as the tri–
umphant march of reason trampling over the sacred. [n other words,
while some fear the death of the sacred, others fear the dictatorship im–
posed in the name of the sacred. What can we say? Above all, that any
type of dictatorship will certainly destroy the sacred. "Above all" does
not mean exclusively. One can reject the sacred by turning one's back on
it, but the sacred cannot be successfully defended by police and dictators.
I am a Pole. In the pantheon of Polish heroes, the highest place is
taken by Tadeusz Kosciuszko, a hero of the American Revolution and of
the Polish struggle for freedom and independence. Kosciuszko loved
freedom, without any Jacobin madness; he loved his nation, without
hating anyone. Allow me to say that
I,
along with my friends, hope this
tradition within Polish culture will prevail in our time of democratic
transition.
What I have sketched shows only that I do not have much to say
concerning the new role of intellectuals in the post-Communist society. I
trust that the status of these intellectuals will remain unchanged. The
more they are able to resist group phobias, madness, and conformism, the
more they will be heeded. The more they reject current fashion and
adhere to the truth, the more valiant will be their voices. Intellectuals
must remain what they have always been: a nail in the shoe of "normal"
society.
Marina Tsvetaeva once wrote that because of their peculiar situation,
all poets are Jews. Let us borrow her thought. An honest intellectual has
to count on being confronted with attacks as brutal and aggressive as
