Posts
The Prague Declaration on European Conscience and Communism was adopted more than one year ago, on the occasion of a conference held in Prague, June 2008. Among the founding signatories they are former dissidents and personalities, mainly from Poland, the Czech Republic, the Baltic States: Vaclav Havel, Vytautas Landsbergis, Jan Urban, Lukasz Kaminski or Joachim Gauck, former Federal Commissioner for the Stasi archives. By then until March 13 this year, they were gathered less than 1400 signatures of support - 1393.
This year, Europe is marking 20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The Declaration is mentioning also that the same period elapsed since "the massacre in Tiananmen Square and the killings in Romania". In the case of China, the communist country is branded as a succesful case-study of a capitalist economy plus neglect of human rights plus aggresive international affairs presence. In Romania, what happened 20 years ago is still a matter of dispute - was it a "revolution" or a "restauration" of a softer communist elite? One of the main actors of the 1989 events, Ion Iliescu - part of the former communist elite -, is still an important politician, with a word to say in one of the most important parties of the ruling coalition - the Social-Democrat Party (PSD). The former dissidents and public intellectuals are interesting for the media only when they assume a political position and the space devoted to critical thinking is almost non-existent, since the habits of the critical thinking as such are if not publicly rejected, at least ignored and considered an unuseful luxury. Communism, in its anti-globalization version, is again in fashion in Europe and elsewhere, mainly now in times of deep economic crisis.
Will this Declaration offer a coherent and administrative reconsideration of the communist part? Will it counter the nostalgia - of those who have heard about a communism, but never cued for food, for example - with a dosis of naked truth from those who fighted the lack of freedoms with the risk of their freedom? It is too late? How to make the public intervention powerful enough or appropriate, for determining a mobilization of the free and dedicatedt-to-thinking minds and how to make you voice heard to a wider audience?
Totalitarianism is a malady of the spirit. It might manifest in the communist, racist, nazi, fascist, extreme religious behavior. It is the rejection of the other and the psychological desire to eliminate all those we are different of us. All those who went through such experiences - and survived - have the duty to always tell their story. It is the damnation of a permanent alert state-of-mind. I agree a Declaration officially submitted is binding institutions to take effective steps - as to indict those who perpetrated the killings. But, it is by far not enough. The story have to be told over and over and over again, not as a bad-time story, but by rising awareness of the huge risks of the totalitarianism. It is the degree-zero of the tolerance against the perils of indifference, lack of civic involvement, intolerance and manipulation. Such previsions are part of the official statement of any accountable public intellectual, from the former other part of the Wall and elsewhere.
This year, Europe is marking 20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The Declaration is mentioning also that the same period elapsed since "the massacre in Tiananmen Square and the killings in Romania". In the case of China, the communist country is branded as a succesful case-study of a capitalist economy plus neglect of human rights plus aggresive international affairs presence. In Romania, what happened 20 years ago is still a matter of dispute - was it a "revolution" or a "restauration" of a softer communist elite? One of the main actors of the 1989 events, Ion Iliescu - part of the former communist elite -, is still an important politician, with a word to say in one of the most important parties of the ruling coalition - the Social-Democrat Party (PSD). The former dissidents and public intellectuals are interesting for the media only when they assume a political position and the space devoted to critical thinking is almost non-existent, since the habits of the critical thinking as such are if not publicly rejected, at least ignored and considered an unuseful luxury. Communism, in its anti-globalization version, is again in fashion in Europe and elsewhere, mainly now in times of deep economic crisis.
Will this Declaration offer a coherent and administrative reconsideration of the communist part? Will it counter the nostalgia - of those who have heard about a communism, but never cued for food, for example - with a dosis of naked truth from those who fighted the lack of freedoms with the risk of their freedom? It is too late? How to make the public intervention powerful enough or appropriate, for determining a mobilization of the free and dedicatedt-to-thinking minds and how to make you voice heard to a wider audience?
Totalitarianism is a malady of the spirit. It might manifest in the communist, racist, nazi, fascist, extreme religious behavior. It is the rejection of the other and the psychological desire to eliminate all those we are different of us. All those who went through such experiences - and survived - have the duty to always tell their story. It is the damnation of a permanent alert state-of-mind. I agree a Declaration officially submitted is binding institutions to take effective steps - as to indict those who perpetrated the killings. But, it is by far not enough. The story have to be told over and over and over again, not as a bad-time story, but by rising awareness of the huge risks of the totalitarianism. It is the degree-zero of the tolerance against the perils of indifference, lack of civic involvement, intolerance and manipulation. Such previsions are part of the official statement of any accountable public intellectual, from the former other part of the Wall and elsewhere.
No comments:
Post a Comment