552
PARTISAN REVIEW
stronger; moreover, they have done so in a spirit of realism: Jews are a para–
doxical people. They have bonds to the place they inhabit, and they require
respect for this multilateral solidarity. Such multiple affiliation is character–
istic of all peoples, of national minorities, and in every democratic country
the majority must accept it. Mutual acceptance of the complexity of life
and emotions is not compatible with radical forms of nationalism, because
permeated by them, the majority does not approve of certain citizens of its
nation-state cultivating solidarities that reach beyond the borders, or of
certain citizens feeling they belong to more than one place, but the minor–
ity doesn't tolerate such complexity either,
if
it brims with the logic of
radical nationalism, because that logic compels the individual to make
sharp, either/or choices-decide what you are,Jew or [enter the name of
the majority nationality here]. If you are a Jew who happens to live
in
country X, then concern yourself mostly with Jewish affairs, and do not try
to identify with one or the other interest, issue, or group of the national
majority, because that is currying and treason.
Where the charge of treason can appear in the discussion, fundamen–
talism is at home, a spirit that straightforwardly abhors the idea of dual or
multiple identity, and wants to prove one of the two is false, fake, that it
does not exist. To me, the Diaspora Jews are more convincingly regarded
as the experimental subjects of multi-level, dialogic consciousness.
For a few minutes, let us allow ourselves to daydream of utopian
trends. The second rnillenium was the age of rigid consciousness in the
ruling ideologies. It was possible to declare one or another way of think–
ing criminal, and to persecute it. Today, we don't know what will happen,
but we open the door to the future. We imagine that the people of the
third rnillenium will inform themselves more in the direction of learning,
knowledge, information, the spiritlintellect, art fantasy, free time, individ–
ualism. From a growing number of building elements, people intuitively
look for the combination that suits them. In the era of plentiful life-destiny
choices, it will be normal for a person to know something others don't, and
to be needed by several others, somewhere. The taste and egoism of talent
will be defining; consequently, humility will not be typical; free choice will
be, probably the free choice of humili ty, but curiosity will be typical in any
case.
Can humankind live without enemies? How can humanity vent its
impulse to
kill?
Probably aggression will become individualized too,
because murder was and remains the most extreme act. Besides the indi–
vidualization of aggression, the battle of religious fundamentalisms may
