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human so lidari ty emerge. To me, thi s a lso demonstra ted an adherence
to democra tic va lues tha t beli es the p reoccupa ti on w ith ethni city.
In the Czech Repu bli c, you seem to have so lved th a t p rob lem to some
extent, by separa ting from Slova ki a .
Kri seova: I do not think tha t thi s sepa ra ti on was good, a lth ough it was
in evita ble. I do no t think th a t Czechs a nd Slova ks beca me mo re se lf–
confident; they both have deep complexes . T hank God the nineteenth –
centu ry na ti o na li sti c emo ti o ns no longe r wo rk-as th e pop uli st
po liticia ns would w ish. T ha t has been p rove n in the last electi ons. It
seems
to
me that Czechs a lways functioned better when pa rt of bigger
un ions, empires, a nd monarchi es tha n just by themse lves. In th e sma ll ,
ethni ca ll y pu re sta te, they a re becom ing small as indi vidu a ls, provi ncia l.
I put much hope in th e Europea n Uni on. I thi nk th a t if th e post–
communi st states had been admitted
to
membership a coupl e of yea rs
ago, the present and future Euro pe wo ul d be safer. Thi s " no t being good
enough," thi s wa iting and expecti ng, is humili a ting the peop le, mak in g
them more frustra ted . Being second -class Europea ns, th ey are sca red of
the opening wo rld , they do not kn ow the languages, th ey are less edu–
cated . But on the o ther ha nd , look a t these we ll -educa ted first-class
Europea ns in Aust ria, Bava ri a, Ita ly etc., who we re bro ught up fo r fifty–
seven yea rs in democra ti c systems, look a t them. Ma rta H a lpe rt
o bse rves it in her "Letter from Euro pe" in the summer iss ue of
Partisan
Review:
new triba lism, xenopho bi a, na ti ona lism. And peopl e seem
to
be
less and less interes ted in wha t is happening: they wa tch simpli sti c tele–
vision, read simplisti c newspapers a nd magazines, get mo re and mo re
fragmented in their minds. Shouldn 't we a ll bring intell ectu a l ac ti vities
to
the peopl e of utopi a?
