THE HUMANITIES ANI) C:ULTUR.E IIEROES
737
I am very grateful to Dubravka Ugresic, who spoke yesterday of the
emotional side of the war. This relieved me of that burden, and I know
that I could not possibly do it better than she did. On the other hand, I
am also so very grateful to Mr. Enzensberger, who actually spoke on the
topic I wanted to address. If there are any titles that could be given to
my remarks, they would be, "Intellectuals as Bad Guys" and "The Rela–
tionship between Intellectuals and War." I want to speak about intellec–
tuals as bad guys because, in the first place, we have been fixed here on
the positive role of intellectuals and writers, assuming that they should be
or that they are on the positive side, the side of the truth - as if we
know what the truth is. As if we didn't learn or witness enormous dis–
tortions of the tru th, of "theories," or simply of "illusions." After all,
many people speaking here h3ve played a large role in influencing recent
history.
I would like to add some observations to this discussion, but I am
3ware of the fact that even self-criticism adds to self-importance. So let us
not forget to ask: Who arc we? Who may we be? I am 3ctually referring
to the two-sided identity of the intellectual.
M3ny have spoken of the fact that very soon the writers and
intellectuals in E3stern Europe will be in the same position as w riters in
America. They w ill be free of their historical burden to be conscious of
the people. That is, they will be free to speak the truth, to say whatever
they please, but they will be irrelevant and marginal to society in general
and swallowed by the consumer society. I think that just like people in
America, the people in Eastern Europe will learn to get and to expect
everything, as Brodsky said, "good and bad, more bad than good ." We
have expected intellectuals to speak up in our name, to represent us, to
shape the important ideas for us. This implies a certain laziness of the
mind. And I suspect that the free-market economy will sooner or later
force us to understand the meaning of individualism. In turn, that will
create the possibility for us to finally think fi-cely, simply because we now
do not know how to think freely or independently. No one, and noth–
ing in our lives, has taught us that difficult ski ll. In a sense we are quite
innocent.
This, I believe, is the reason to believe that in the transition from
COlllmunislll to democracy the intelligentsia will still play an important
role. It is even more important considering that we don't know how
long this period of so-called transition will last and that we don't have
any guarantees that the present path really will lead to democracy. I have
to add another reason to remind ourselves of our human possibilities,
that is, our weaknesses. It arises from the fact that I do not believe that
the masses alone determine the course of history or take history into their
hands. Not only am I terrified of this idea, but I also must say that this is
