26. 8. 2017
Zmotat dohromady morální úsudek a vědu, to je přesně to, co dělal pořád komunismus a proti tomu právě bojuji. Mně osobně byl komunistický režim silně nesympatický, ale to přece nemá nic společného s vědeckým přístupem! Do toho, co si já osobně myslím o komunismu, nikomu nic není! Pro mě to vědomí, že ten režim byl strašlivý, způsobuje, že je o to důležitější pochopit přesně, jak mohl vzniknout a jak mohl tak dlouho přetrvat. Včetně toho, že je nutno snažit se pochopit, jak ten režim ovlivnil mentalitu lidí a co jim přinesl.
And what in all you mentioned here cannot be described by the word "dictatorship with totalitarian intentions" rather than totalitarianism? Totalitarianism is not a historical description but an ideology that carries the connotation that it was nobody's fault, that is was just the system. Yet the system was powered by concrete people, criminal leaders and policemen for sure (that belong in jail), but also by mostly everybody, in their everyday lives. It has been wonderfully described by Havel as "autototalita" (the greengrocer knows that the appeal for all proletarians of the world to unite that he leaves in his shopwindow is absurd, but he leaves it there nevertheless so as not to have "problems". The passersby know that this is absurd, too, but they don't say anything either and thus participate to the collective lie. Etc.) The system was also opposed by concrete people, with individual courage (not by a "systemic opposition.")
To restitute the importance of the individual, of the social actor, to delineate the extent of their choice or absence of choice in understanding how this dictatorship could carry on for so long with so little open opposition, is precisely to stop thinking in global categories that were imposed by the communist worldview - and that prevail until today, alas. To confuse moral judgement and science is what communism was all about and what I am fighting against. I strongly dislike the communist regime myself, but is that anybody's business? For me, the fact that this regime was terrible makes it all the more important to understand exactly how it could come about and remain for so long. Including by understanding how it shaped people's mentality and what it brought them.
Diskuse