THE LITERARY IMPACT
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OF THE AMER.ICAN AND FRENCH REVOLUTIONS
I think we have to deal with the normal debate around the process
of modernization. There are always in the countries that are un–
derdeveloped two ways of thinking about modernization. Either we
imitate the developed countries, or we look for our own solution. In
Poland we had not heard either about Jeffrey Sachs or about the end of
Communism, when mud was already being slung at those same intel–
lectuals that are getting it now. But then there is the xenophobic syn–
drome. When the idea and the fear of Occidental capitalism can organize
emotions; when the slogan, "We have to defend Poland; otherwise they
will buy it out," is so popular; when meanwhile the real situation is such
that we have too little foreign capital and not too much of it; and when
I hear that "they" are going to buyout Poland - then I ask who "they"
are, because I would be very glad to sell my little bit of Poland! But in
fact nobody wants to buy it!
Why is it that intellectuals of a certain kind will always be like a nail
in the shoe? Because they are the critical conscience of their societies.
And here I would again remind us of the words of Marina Tsvetaeva,
that all poets are Jews but that it is better to be a Jew than an anti–
Semite.
Questioll:
The idea of an ethnically pure society ruled by the Catholic
Church seems to me to be the antithesis of freedom, and I would ask
how the intellectual should oppose such states on the basis of human
rights, freedom, and morality. I think that may be a tougher role than
opposing Communism in general.
Adam Michnik:
I hope that such a political program will never come
to life in my country, and if it ever does, that by that time we wi ll have
acquired some experience in dealing with totalitarian regimes.
Questioll:
Mr. Tismaneanu, your eloquent and lyrical remarks reminded
me of my state of mind and that of my generation of Iranian in–
tellectuals, in the wake of the Iranian revolution. Adam Michnik has
mentioned one of the points in which these revolutions are similar: it
appears that the sentiments of intellectuals in the wake of the revolution
are that they feel they have put so much into it - only to see it all
wrested away from them by the callow, corrupt, populist elements. My
question is, how can we distinguish this state of affairs from the kind of
healthy irrelevance intellectuals enjoy in a highly advanced liberal-demo–
cratic society, in which they are Adam Michnik's nail in the shoe?
