"Diavolul in Istorie" lansat la Woodrow Wilson Center din Washington

Marti, 6 noiembrie, intre orele 3:30 si 5 p.m., la Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars din Washington, DC, va avea loc lansarea cartii “The Devil in History: Communism, Fascism, and Some Lessons of the Twentieth Century” (Diavolul in Istorie: Comunism, fascism si cateva lectii ale secolului XX) de Vladimir Tismaneanu, profesor de stiinte politice la Universitatea Maryland. Cartea, care exploreaza de o maniera comparativa ideologiile, practicile si consecintele catastrofice ale extremismelor revolutionare din secolul al XX-lea, a aparut in luna septembrie 2012 la University of California Press si a fost de-acum recenzata in “Times Higher Education”, “The Daily Beast” si “International Affairs”. Carnagiile genocidare nu ar fi fost posibile fara abolirea distinctiilor traditionale dintre Bine si Rau si a ideii insasi de legalitate. Binele nu a fost pur si simplu abolit. S-a produs o diabolica pervertire a sa, ceea ce filosoful rus Vladimir Soloviov a numit falsificarea Binelui.

Categorii intregi din ceea ce traditia rationalismului priveste drept umanitate au fost decretate drept non-umane. Li s-a contestat dreptul sacru la viata in numele unor viziuni demential-purificatoare menite sa duca la reconstruirea ideologica a conditiei umane insasi. Inarmate cu doctrine presupus infailibile, statele majore ale miscarilor revolutionare totalitare si-au arogat dreptul de a decide cine are si cine nu are dreptul de a trai. Relativismul etic a fost justificarea acestor experimente: este moral ceea ce serveste cauzei ultime, crearea comunitatii perfecte, rasiale ori sociale.

Evenimentul va fi prezidat de Dr Christian Ostermann, directorul Programului de Istorie si Politica Publica si al Proiectului de Istorie a Razboiului Rece din cadrul Centrului Woodrow Wilson. Voi va prezenta cartea, dupa care vor urma comentariile profesorilor Charles King si Dennis Deletant, ambii de la Universitatea Georgetown. Amintesc ca volumul este dedicat memoriei a trei remarcabili intelectuali ale caror opere au luminat semnificatiile profunde si atat de nelinistitoare ale secolului lagarelor de concentrare, al ideologiilor redemptive si al unor pe cat de grandioase, pe atat de nefaste proiecte de inginerie sociala. Este vorba de Leszek Kolakowski, Tony Judt si Robert C. Tucker. Cum scria Kolakowski, prezenta Diavolului in istoria acestui veac nu este o metafora, ci descrierea unei situatii reale: “Diavolul este o parte din experienta noastra. Generatia noastra a vazut destul din el pentru ca mesajul sa fie luat extrem de serios”.

Evenimentul va fi va putea fi urmarit live aici:

http://www.wilsoncenter.org/event/the-devil-history-communism-fascism-and-some-lessons-the-twentieth-century

The Devil in History: Communism, Fascism, and Some Lessons of the Twentieth Century

November 06, 2012 // 3:30pm — 5:00pm

Vladimir Tismaneanu, professor of comparative politics at the University of Maryland College Park, will discuss his latest book The Devil in History: Communism, Fascism, and Some Lessons of the Twentieth Century which examines the relationship between communism and fascism.

Reflecting Vladimir Tismaneanu’s personal experiences within communist totalitarianism, The Devil in History is about political passions, radicalism, utopian ideals, and their catastrophic consequences in the twentieth century’s experiments in social engineering. Tismaneanu compares communism and fascism as competing, sometimes overlapping, and occasionally strikingly similar systems of political totalitarianism. He examines the inherent ideological appeal of these radical, revolutionary political movements, the visions of salvation and revolution they pursued, the value and types of charisma of leaders within these political movements, the place of violence within these systems, and their legacies in contemporary politics.

The Devil in History explores thinkers who have shaped contemporary understanding of totalitarian movements—such as: Hannah Arendt, Raymond Aron, Isaiah Berlin, Albert Camus, François Furet, Tony Judt, Ian Kershaw, Leszek Kolakowski, Richard Pipes, and Robert C. Tucker. As much a theoretical analysis of the practical philosophies of Marxism-Leninism and Fascism as it is a political biography of particular figures, The Devil in History deals with the incarnation of diabolically nihilistic principles of human subjugation and conditioning in the name of presumably pure and purifying goals.

Ultimately, Tismaneanu argues that no ideological commitment, no matter how absorbing, should ever prevail over the sanctity of human life. He comes to the conclusion that no party, movement, or leader holds the right to dictate to the followers to renounce their critical faculties and to embrace a pseudo-miraculous, a mystically self-centered, delusional vision of mandatory happiness.

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