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boa rds fo r manuscripts. It is in o ur interest to questio n any principle that
authori zes th e sta te to bull y.
Dictatorships do no t let th eir citi zens fo rge t abo ut politi cs, relent–
lessly etchin g its tedi ous stimuli into o ur memori es . Consequ entl y, no
one could be genuinel y naive; everyo ne had to be vi gilant. And because
th e state had its bias, the oppositi on had
its
bias. Even people who tri ed
to opt out - to find a small , sa fe co rn er for th emselves and keep from
be ing picked on - had a bias. Pro or con , impulse and anguish skew nar–
rati o n.
I see inqulSltl ve li ghts in people 's eyes : th ey wa nt to kn ow how
things stand ; th ey want explanati o ns. T he ma n in the street is less gullible
than he was three years ago; he's got a lot more savvy, th e savvy th at
comes o f bitter experi ence. T here is no politi cal aft erlife; the here and
now is eve rything. Yo u are what you are, not what you could be if the
system were different.
T he system is social-nati o nalist capitalism and it's here to stay. You
can ca ll it names or turn it to your advantage . Doubting T homases are
looking fo r values; they are no t killing one ano ther: the new politi cs has
produ ced no t a single casualty. T here w ill be mo re poverty at first -
then less. T here w ill be more armed robbery - then , in all likelihood ,
less. Bankers and intell ec tuals have started feeling a mutual attracti o n. Life
is no lo nger an eni gma: what you see is mo re or less what you ge t. And
what you see is a fas t change act accompani ed by a new rhetori c.
But th e devel opments have also given rise to a new amnes ia: many
people feel th ey have had th eir pasts snatched away from th em . So much
of what th ey learn ed turns out to have been hogwas h . T hey are not
look in g forward to the future, tho ugh th ey are w illing to put up w ith
it; they may even grow to love it - just because it's there.
I expec t good books to come o f the outl ook that wi ll emerge o nce
wounded senses o f identity have had time to heal and today's people
have had time
to
ga in insight in to th e people of yesterday and the day
befo re (bea ring in mind our regio n 's propensity for tragicall y compl ex
human des tini es and self-justi fying skullduggery). If good literature does
come of all this, it will surely show the making of hi story to be absurd ,
though th e result o f perfec tl y sensible , well-intentioned , and fa r from
absurd aspi ra ti ons. N ow that th e time has come fo r narratives and di a–
logic epi cs, we must ask whi ch preva ils in literature: the logic of th e dia–
logue or th e logic of tribal prej udi ce? Shall we be able to turn our past
(whi ch publi c opinion still sees in fas hi onably ideological terms) into an