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verso: revoluflii în oglindæ (mirroring revolutions)<br />
form cæruia conducerea partidului a încæput pe mîna unor liberali nemiloøi,<br />
specializafli în chinuirea poporului.<br />
Cum øtii, nu fac parte din electoratul MSZP. Îmi este însæ clar cæ destinul stîngii<br />
– socialiste øi liberale – maghiare poate fi decis pe decenii de ce se va întîmpla<br />
cu MSZP. Viitorul acestui partid atîrnæ de multæ vreme deja de-un fir de<br />
pær. Baza sa electoralæ îmbætrîneøte cu trecerea timpului, iar partea cea mai<br />
masivæ a acestui electorat e constituitæ, cu totul disproporflionat, de „bastioanele“<br />
marii industrii a perioadei Kádár. Un singur pas greøit poate elimina<br />
partidul pe veci. Uitæ-te la cazul Poloniei!<br />
Socialiøtii suferæ din cauza faptului cæ nu reuøesc sæ-øi creeze propriul lor Bad<br />
Godesberg. Astæzi, tu eøti megafonul elocvent al celor cærora li se face pærul<br />
mæciucæ atunci cînd se vorbeøte despre un Bad Godesberg maghiar.<br />
Mæ tem cæ, pentru asta, vei avea motive serioase sæ te cæieøti.<br />
În disputatul meu articol am scris pe tonul celui mai înalt respect despre faptul<br />
cæ, în calitate de ministru, Jacek Kuron a avut curajul de a asuma responsabilitatea<br />
personalæ pentru terapia de øoc prin care guvernul <strong>format</strong> de<br />
Solidaritatea a scos din crizæ economia polonezæ. Tu mi-ai ræspuns cæ n-am<br />
ochi pentru înfrîngerea moralæ a celor care-mi sînt cei mai apropiafli. Ce<br />
anume se poate numi, în acest caz, înfrîngere moralæ?<br />
Oare faptul cæ un socialist convins – cum fusese Jacek Kuron – sprijinise un<br />
program coerent cu logica funcflionærii capitalismului? E foarte adeværat cæ acest<br />
program nu pregæteøte crearea „societæflii comunale, nonautoritare øi bazate<br />
pe multitudinea de miøcæri de voluntari“. Cînd ai sprijinit însæ programul<br />
de o sutæ de zile al guvernului Medgyessy, pînæ øi tu subscriseseøi<br />
la un pachet de mæsuri ce n-au nimic de-a face cu utopia<br />
ta socialistæ – øi ai øi zis asta.<br />
Sæ flinæ oare înfrîngerea moralæ de faptul cæ în timp ce tu vezi,<br />
øi aræfli øi altora, diferenfla dintre scopul final øi cele pe termen scurt,<br />
liderii Solidaritæflii au acflionat – cum spui – din „falsæ conøtiinflæ“? Fiindcæ ei<br />
n-au înfleles cæ, în calitate de conducætori ai unei miøcæri muncitoreøti socialiste,<br />
realizeazæ flelurile unei revoluflii liberal-burgheze? „[…] S-au pæcælit<br />
pe ei înøiøi.“ Nu øtiu la cine te gîndeøti. Socialiøtii ræmaøi din Solidaritatea<br />
s-au opus în mod deschis cæii capitaliste, au condamnat terapia de øoc øi<br />
creaseræ un partid de stînga separat. Jacek nu li s-a alæturat, øi øtia foarte bine<br />
ce face.<br />
Ræmîne faptul cæ terapia de øoc, de partea cæreia s-a angajat Jacek, lua din<br />
buzunarele oamenilor, pe cînd statul bunæstærii le dæ. Acesta sæ fie motivul<br />
pentru care Jacek a fost sortit eøecului moral? A îmbunætæfli situaflia oamenilor<br />
e bine, a o face øi mai grea e ræu. Numai cæ nu întotdeauna putem<br />
îmbunætæfli ceva, sau mæcar sæ evitæm un ræu øi mai mare, în aøa fel încît sæ<br />
nu producem øi lucruri rele – cîteodatæ grave. Iar atunci cînd nu se poate,<br />
atunci cei ce îøi asumæ un rol public în politicæ nu îøi demonstreazæ flinuta<br />
moralæ prin faptul cæ nu se confruntæ cu costurile umane ale creærii binelui<br />
public, ci prin faptul cæ au curajul de a privi în ochi adeværul dureros øi acceptæ<br />
consecinflele sale practice.<br />
Jacek a privit în ochi adeværul. Asta nu e trist, ci înælflætor. „Mærefliei“, scrie<br />
Hegel, „nu-i datoræm compasiune, ci admiraflie.“<br />
Pentru început ar fi de ajuns dacæ am cædea de acord în privinfla asta.<br />
Your audience today is a fraction in the membership of the Hungarian Socialist<br />
Party (MSZP) and the related intelligentsia, which rejects the modernization<br />
process of their party. A while ago you wrote that those who urge a left-wing<br />
turn within the MSZP have, in fact, a nationalist turn in mind. Obviously you<br />
have nothing to do with that. Nonetheless you have contributed to the rise of<br />
the present atmosphere, namely, to the fact that the leadership of the party is<br />
now trapped by heartless liberals specialized in exploiting the masses.<br />
As you well know, I do not belong to the MSZP’s voters. Nevertheless I am<br />
quite aware that the fate of the MSZP will determine the fate of the entire<br />
Hungarian left wing – both the socialist and the liberal one – for decades from<br />
now. The future of this party has been uncertain for quite some time. Its electorate<br />
gets older and older from one campaign to another, and it still relies<br />
disproportionately on the past industrial “towers” of the Kádár-regime.<br />
Stumbling may be fatal to it. Look at Poland!<br />
Among other reasons, socialists suffer because they never could have their own<br />
Bad Godesberg. You are the skilled speaker for those who object to a Hungarian<br />
Bad Godesberg to their last breath.<br />
You will truly resent it, I’m afraid.<br />
In my initial article, I have greatly appreciated Minister Jacek Kuron’s bravery<br />
in assuming personal responsibility for the shock therapy by which the Solidarity-government<br />
led the Polish economy out of its state of crisis. I have no eyes<br />
for the moral defeat of my friends – you replied. But where is the moral defeat<br />
in all of that?<br />
Is it perhaps in the fact that a convinced socialist – because<br />
Jacek remained one until his death – took the side of a program<br />
tuned into the logic of capitalism? Indeed, that program was<br />
not meant to prepare the creation of “a non-authoritarian, communal<br />
society liberated from power and built upon a multitude<br />
of voluntary movements”. Yet, by supporting the hundred days’ program of the<br />
Medgyessy-government, you sided with a package of measures that had very little<br />
to do with your socialist utopia – and you have even acknowledged the fact.<br />
Or does the moral defeat lie in the fact that while you are aware of the<br />
difference between the final aim and the short-term goals, and you make this<br />
difference clear to everybody, the leaders of the Solidarity – as you say – acted<br />
out of “false conscience”? They did not realize that, as leaders of a socialist<br />
labor movement, they were accomplishing the objectives of the bourgeois revolution.<br />
“They deceived themselves.” I do not know whom you mean by “they”.<br />
The socialists within the Solidarity have openly opposed the capitalist turn;<br />
they have attacked the shock therapy, and have founded an independent<br />
socialist party. Jacek did not follow them, and he knew what he did.<br />
The only alternative left is that shock therapy took something from people,<br />
while the welfare state usually offers them something. Is Jacek fated to moral<br />
defeat because of this? It is a good thing to improve people’s situation while it<br />
is a bad thing to spoil it. Only that improvements, or escapes from the worst,<br />
are not always done without certain – sometimes quite severe – negative<br />
effects. And when this is the case, those who undertake political tasks prove<br />
their untainted morals not by disregarding the human costs of pursuing general<br />
welfare, but by being brave enough to face the painful truth and to assume<br />
the empirical consequences of this process.<br />
Jacek looked reality in the face. This is an uplifting, not a distressful fact.<br />
“It is not compassion we owe greatness, but admiration”, Hegel wrote.<br />
For the beginning, it would suffice if we agreed upon this.<br />
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