INTELLECTUALS AND WRITERS
SINCE THE THIRTIES
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Church never has been the source of any qualitatively new spiritual ideas.
No encycl icals on this subject were even issued by the Church. This is
because the Church's purpose on this earth has been to survive. It has
displayed the same deportment as the Jesuitical order, for example, in the
Catholic Church. At the moment, the Russian Church is still con–
tributing to the diffusion of the social argument. That is why I think af–
ter a certain point the Church is a hindrance. On the other hand, that
remarkable other hand, you have the climate of the Church giving a
universal answer to life. This may result in a more profound social con–
tract than cou ld emerge elsewhere. I don't think it has taken place thus
far. Right now the Church revels in being all owed to exist. It almost is
operating with some vengeance in the context of society. That is as clear
as I can be without getting into metaphysics.
Czeslaw Milosz:
For me personally, it is very important to give a
spiritual dimension to poetry. I am definitely against sllch poets as Philip
Larkin. I appreciate the poetry of Joseph Brodsky, because it has that
spiritual dimension. If we take American poetry, the spiritual dimension
mostly comes from Buddhism, not from C hristian ity. This is a very pecu–
liar phenomenon. In Poland, there is a spli t between the intellectual
branch of Ca tholicism and Catholi cism at large, which is oriented in a
populist, rightist direction .
Qllestion:
I come from Croatia. If the people of Central and Eastern Eu–
rope now are extremely apathetic, cou ld they be otherwise influenced by
the work of writers?
Joseph Brodsky:
If it is true that the people of Eastern Europe are
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the grip of apathy, what can writers do about it?
Czeslaw Milosz:
Apathy is a soc ial phenomenon, as is skepticism about
political institutions. It touches large segments of a population. In my
opinion, those, for instance, who participated in the Polish elections, a
relatively small percentage, were intellectually aware. In this sense, there is
some hope.
Joseph Brodsky:
First of all , I don't agree with the premise that most
of the people in Eastern Europe are in the grip of apathy, simply because
they have been
actil/,!?
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frequently in some erroneous manner, but never–
theless acting. Secondly, if it were true, it is my experience that apathy is
a transitory and not a permanent stage. Nor do I believe that skep ti cism
is the final destination of the individual. One may pride oneself on being
