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PARTISAN REVIEW
call into question the participation of their distant descendants (real or
supposed) in the society that developed from that particular passage in
history? Occitany's fate should be the subject of history and of reflec–
tion; there is no reason that this memory would motivate collective
action unless through force of political manipulation.
Collective memory inevitably becomes political-though this does
not preclude a moral dimension. Democratic nations all refer to a cer–
tain set of values, without necessarily adhering to them. Once the citi–
zenry establishes the legitimacy of the political order and sets up a
societal bond, the values aspired to-the fundamental dignity of all indi–
viduals-become the most objective component of social reality and
political life. This is what Germany's dual experience shows us. The for–
mer West Germany has acknowledged its Nazi past, while East Ger–
many fed on the myth that all Nazis were West Germans and that East
Germans were thoroughly innocent. The West Germans became democ–
rats, while those in the East are even today discovering their own Nazi
past, a discovery that is becoming a part of their identity.
It
is worrisome
that a debate on the nature of real communism has not begun, either in
the Western democracies or in those formerly under Communist dicta–
torship. What is worse, those who broach the subject are still delegit–
imized and treated as morally suspect. How can we not be stunned that
anti-anti-Communism remains, in contemporary France, a position that
is called, in another national context, "politically correct"?
Decades-long repression in France of the memories of Vichy is
undoubtedly behind the recent stream of writings and debates on this
subject. By contrast, when will the memory of the Algerian War be
released from its repression? Ultimately it will be this that allows us to
recognize the fate of the Harkis for what it was . We can only render
homage to President Chirac for his solemn recognition of the role of the
French State in the deportation of the Jews. When will the conduct of
the Fifth Republic government in the Harkis' tragedy be similarly rec–
ognized? When will the Communist experience become the object of
moral and political scrutiny for our generation?
Collective debates on the past provide the grounding for a democ–
racy, whose obligation is to willfully acknowledge its mistakes, faults,
or crimes. Politics, too, has a moral dimension. To acknowledge one's
past-not in its entirety, which is impossible, but that part of it which
still exerts its force on the present-is one of the preconditions for a
working democracy.
Translated from the French
by
Jim Tucker
