GEORGE KONR.AD
245
or mere changes in fashion make it abundantly and immediately clear
that we are dependent on humanity as a whole and humanity as a whole
depends on us. Our lives can be affected by a clever lunatic whose artistic
forte happens to be mass destruction, the destruction of foreigners and
his own kind, mixed. We are dependent on the new collective identities
that up and decide their essence to be incompatible with that of their
neighbors and think nothing of killing to gain sway over them.
In
Eastern Europe these collective identities are particularly likely to ex–
plode.
In
their hysteria they feel they are surrounded by enemies and
therefore in dire need of cleansing their ethnic-national-religious-lin–
guistic-tribal ranks (a process that includes rewarding the politically
loyal). While communist dictatorships wither on the vine, their interna–
tionalist ideology no longer viable, the prospects for national dictator–
ships are blossoming.
Now that the big nations' bloc system - that is, a world order rest–
ing on the nuclear powder keg - is no more, the little nations (and na–
tionalities) want their own way (and, to some extent, the right to tell
others what to do). They are restless; they take potshots at their neigh–
bors and demand territorial autonomy. A minority turns majority, which
then breaks up into more minorities, each insisting on its own voice.
The continent is teeming with autonomies; dissolution fever has reached
endemic proportions. Only yesterday all talk was of unification, and
people believed it was good. Now all talk is of breaking asunder, and
people believe it is good. Both doctrines - the doctrine of unity and the
doctrine of autonomy - are the work of people who write books.
If
things go on like this, anyone who fails to rage against his neighbor is li–
able to be accused of treason.
East Europeans did not drink in capitalism with their mother's milk;
they must learn it as adults.
It
is only natural that they should be unsure
of themselves and thus suffer from wounded pride. Enter a band of
mediocrities with their fists in the air. The hatred is there; it just needs
someone to direct it.
Does the region recognize the latent fascism in all this? Sometimes it
is not so latent. Anti-communist rhetoric is increasingly peppered with
far-right cliches. Professional hate-mongers on the lookout for an inter–
national mafia are beginning to give their devil Jewish features, a revival
that reeks of pre-war, unfinished business.
I see a special role for the intelligentsia, a new class that has proved
its ability to live dangerously in our century.
It
played no mean part in
the raving intolerance of our two collectivisms, providing theory in the
