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PARTISAN REVIEW
French, German, or Swedish Left today can prevent the East from crit–
ically investigating this tragedy. This means opening archives, subjecting
decades of Communist rule to an objective assessment, analyzing the
ambiguity and "advantages" that made life possible under the dema–
gogic one-party system. A well-documented and penetrating analysis of
"real socialism" would be the appropriate answer to the suffering of the
East and the indifference of the West.
Why this is not happening is no big mystery. There is possibly some–
thing more pressing in East European societies: too many accomplices,
if not the actual guilty, hold the stage or the wings.
The case of National Socialism was no different. "Denazification" and
the conviction of the guilty were steps in a slow and not-at-all exemplary
process. Germany lost the war, and the victors required the country to
examine its own past and struggle for moral convalescence. The reaction
of the younger generation was admirable, though not until the sixties.
Communism, mind you, was not defeated in a war-like conflict. The
victors and the defeated belonged to the same peoples. Therefore, for–
merly Communist countries have to work out their pasts themselves.
['m in no way certain whether that is such a simple task. The older gen–
eration, with a ll its "goods" and "evils," is fading away.
I
doubt that in
the East or the West a new "Generation of '68" will arise that will be
interested in historical catharsis, in the boring Communist "story" that
happened in the Stone Age and seems completely absurd. And even if it
were to be debated, trivialization, commercialization, and denial seem
unavoidable-as was true of the Holocaust. Not surprisingly, human
nature provides us again and again with a full range of contradictions
and paradoxes; a magical improvement cannot be expected.
EK: Let's stay on the topic of Leftist ideology: many followers of Com–
munism believe that the Sta lini st Terror was "bad," but that this in no
way detracts from the "good" of Marxist teachings. They argue that, in
theory, Communism is good, but has been carried out badly: that means
it could also be carried out well. Can we afford any more experiments
to test this argument?
NM: The Marxist critiqu e of capital ism could perhaps still offer some
arguments, even if they need to be revised and fitted to today's complex
society. It could also focus on the alarming differences between affluent
and underdeveloped countries, between the al l-too-rich and the
extremely poor. Yet Commun ism is a na'ive and dangerous simplifica–
tion of human ex istence and fatally requires that man must fit himself
