Expensive Lana Bastašić, Kamel Daoud, Drago Jančar, Oksana Zabuzhko,
How surreal, and thrilling, to jot down a letter about Europe to 4 individuals I’ve by no means met earlier than. There are few points that trigger as many misunderstandings as Europe. So this feels a bit like getting into a swingers’ membership for the primary time. Europe has been the topic of many metaphors, so why not this one? A swingers’ membership.
In any case, Europe should already be near our coronary heart – or shut sufficient, not less than – since all of us agreed to take part in a discussion board about Europe and the Way forward for Democracy. You don’t should be a cynic to sigh discreetly and ask your self: Once more? Is it Groundhog Day? Though we differ in age and background I assume that you’ve got all participated in sufficient panels the place the contributors needed to speak about kind of this matter.
The fragility of liberal democracy is a given. It’s attainable that liberal democracy is now a bit extra fragile than it was in, say, 1990, nevertheless it has at all times been fragile. As to the query of how endangered and fragile liberal democracy is, that’s at all times additionally a matter of time and place. I say this as a reluctant universalist. In any case, the early nineties have been additionally the period of the conflict in Yugoslavia, one which has largely disappeared from the collective unconscious, not less than exterior the previous Yugoslavia. In Sarajevo in 1993 the fragility of democracy should have felt completely different than in Paris, London or Milan.
Susan Sontag in Sarajevo
As you all know, in 1993 Susan Sontag went to Sarajevo, a metropolis underneath siege at the moment, to direct Ready for Godot. She wrote that she had been to Sarajevo earlier than and that the individuals there had informed her: “We’re a part of Europe. We’re the individuals in former Yugoslavia who stand for European values: secularism, spiritual tolerance, and multi-ethnicity. How can the remainder of Europe let this occur to us?”
Sontag had replied that “Europe is and at all times has been as a lot a spot of barbarism as a spot of civilization”. Sadly, “they didn’t need to hear. Now, a couple of months later, nobody would dispute such a press release.”
The German thinker Theodor Adorno acknowledged that barbarism is inscribed inside the precept of civilisation. We are able to talk about what precisely Adorno meant, however we will additionally merely conclude that every one civilisations will want barbarians, exterior the gates or contained in the neighborhood, with the intention to distinguish themselves from the still-uncivilised.
I’m not in any respect a staunch conservative however I’m uncertain that we people can reside with out an enemy, that it’s attainable to form a collective id with out actual enemies or fantasies about perceived enemies.
I additionally ponder whether thirty years after Sontag’s journey to Sarajevo we nonetheless can declare that secularism, spiritual tolerance, and multi-ethnicity are European values. If not, I might counsel that we not lament for too lengthy. Actuality didn’t meet our expectations, Europe could have upset us. However let’s transfer on.
I additionally ponder whether thirty years after Sontag’s journey to Sarajevo we nonetheless can declare that secularism, spiritual tolerance, and multi-ethnicity are European values
Disappointment in regards to the current is as frequent because the glorification of an virtually at all times legendary previous. The flip aspect of that coin is the tendency to see the previous – ideally one’s personal previous – as a sequence of crimes and misdemeanours that should be prosecuted. I’m very a lot in favour – who isn’t? – of historic evaluation that’s as meticulous and unbiased as attainable. After all, a impartial historic evaluation shouldn’t be attainable, however nonetheless.
The tendency to see historical past as an train in prosecution is the enemy of understanding and evaluation. There are occasions once we can not keep away from prosecution of the previous with the intention to appropriate a state of affairs within the current. However, with out denying that there are victims and perpetrators, it’s clear {that a} gray zone of acts exists the place morality and the alternatives individuals make aren’t at all times clear.
The donkeys in Europe
I’m not positive how I might behave within the excessive situations of conflict or persecution. Ever since I reached the conclusion that I’m a median sinner – I’m not spiritual in any respect however the phrases “common sinner” summarise the gray zone neatly – my expectations of myself in these circumstances aren’t very excessive.
A pal of mine tells me each time now we have dinner {that a} sinner wants a future and a saint wants a previous. I hope that we agree that all of us want a future. The query is, what sort of future do we’d like? And for whom? Ought to we embody different animals in our ideas and plans? Are the donkeys in Europe additionally Europeans?
The German poet and playwright Friedrich Schiller wrote: Deutschland? Aber wo liegt es? Ich weiß das Land nicht zu finden; / Wo das gelehrte beginnt, hört das politische auf. (“Germany? However the place is it? I do not know the place to seek out the nation; / The place the discovered begins, the political ends”.) I promise that from right here on I’ll cease dropping names. However can we practise the artwork of dialog with out dropping any names? For one purpose or one other, I’ve at all times had a weak spot for Germany. Though I moved from Amsterdam to New York in 1995, I might like to grow to be a German later in life, no matter being a German means or entails. At a minimal, holding a German passport. Or is there one thing extra to it?
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Anyhow, Schiller’s query applies simply as effectively to Europe. Germany has discovered its borders, in the meanwhile not less than, however Europe continues to be busy discovering the place it ends. The British wished to be Europeans hors concours, and now a lot of them are a bit upset about this standing. The British have been ridiculed sufficient, and the British are masters in self-ridicule. Honour to whom honour is due.
Is Europe the historical past of Europe? Is there a standard historical past? How a lot historical past do we’d like with the intention to form our future? Do we’d like one other utopia? Or, having grow to be sadder and wiser after so many failed utopias, ought to we attempt to discover some happiness in imperfection?
Prisoners of historical past
It’s not advisable to grow to be a prisoner of historical past, or a prisoner of the myths and legends so usually related to the telling of historical past. It’s when conservatism and traditionalism permit themselves to grow to be prisoners that their ugliest and most illiberal outgrowths begin to take form.
The opportunity of escape: to me that is an essence of what it means to be a mortal, a human being, no matter you need to name it. Escape is feasible, generally unavoidable; generally the escapee shall be applauded, at different occasions the escape artist shall be labelled a coward, however that’s much less essential to me.
If I need to defend liberal democracy, and I consider I do (whether or not I need to die for it’s a entire different query), to me that entails having the ability to reside with individuals who don’t have any admiration in any respect for this political system.
Europe can also be a longing, a promised land within the distance. The second you set foot within the promised land, you overlook in regards to the promise
I don’t consider that decency implies that you will need to need to defend liberal democracy. That will be an utter lack of creativeness and it could be in opposition to the spirit of freedom. I’m not even positive that we’re speaking about the identical factor once we use the phrases “liberal democracy.”
It’s haughty to imagine that as a result of we’re authors – to call one of many smaller frequent demeanors that bind us – we should subscribe to the identical opinions, that we should have a set of beliefs that binds us.
Reside with individuals who need to kill me
To me, liberal democracy requires that I can reside along with people who find themselves keen about issues that I despise, that I may even have dinner with them. In a barely exaggerated means because of this I can reside along with individuals who need to kill me. So long as they chorus from doing so, I’ve no specific downside with their needs. They’re entitled to their fantasies and their hobbies, so long as they respect the legislation. And that’s for me one other attribute of liberal democracy, that I can really feel protected by the legislation, that there isn’t a must take the legislation in my very own arms or a must bribe policemen, judges and prosecutors.
I may reside along with individuals who have political beliefs that I deem harmful, disgusting and doubtless immoral. No central authority tells us what to assume and what not, who to admire and who to not admire, who to consider and who to not consider. That’s the system I’m speaking about.
By transferring to New York, I grew to become a European. It’s in all probability simpler to be a European when you don’t reside in Europe.
Europe can also be a longing, a promised land within the distance. The second you set foot within the promised land, you overlook in regards to the promise.
For sure, there are too many temptations. The darkness is there. Some thinker – I promised you, no extra name-dropping – mentioned that freedom is uncanny.
However temptation shouldn’t be the identical as an authority with a secret police and a military to implement a set of beliefs upon its residents. We could also be dwelling underneath the yoke of commercialism – and sure, does the novel have a cheap future, or ought to we exclude cash from the equation as soon as and for all in order that the artist solely wants a rich patron? – however that isn’t the identical as a brutal regime. Simply consider Iran.
If I consider that I’m a missionary whose process it’s to transform others to comply with me in my beliefs, in my world view, my struggles, my concepts about justice, then I might not be taking freedom significantly. A novelist could have a worldview (he in all probability does), and he usually makes use of his worldview to seduce readers to the world via his eyes. However that isn’t the identical because the act of actively changing somebody.
The offending novelist
My discontent about so many discussions with a few of my contemporaries, a few of my greatest pals, is that they can not cease changing different individuals. Do the best factor. Consider the best factor. Say the best factor. I didn’t grow to be a novelist to reside the life or mental lifetime of a boy scout.
Is Europe greater than mere geography? Whether it is extra than simply geography, then how can we outline that surplus? Can we agree on values with out making them so generic that it’s evident that they’ve been formulated with the intention to not offend anybody?
The novelist has at all times been there to offend individuals, however not only for the sake of offence.
I count on the novelist to work onerous to be as trustworthy as attainable. Honesty and agreeability don’t at all times go collectively effectively.
On the one hand I might like to please, as a result of I might like to be remembered additionally as a part-time charmer. Alternatively, I don’t need to betray our career.
The individuals who invited us, the individuals who pay us, our readers, won’t just like the issues now we have to say. If the more serious involves the worst, we will at all times apologise.
I sit up for seeing you in Amsterdam.
Be effectively, Arnon Grunberg
This letter is likely one of the “Letters on Democracy”, a challenge of the 4th Discussion board on European Tradition going down in June 2023 in Amsterdam. Organised by De Balie, the Discussion board focuses on the that means and way forward for democracy in Europe, bringing collectively artists, activists and intellectuals to discover democracy as a cultural slightly than a political expression.
For the Letters on Democracy, 5 writers envision the way forward for Europe in a sequence of 5 letters initiated by Arnon Grunberg. The writers – Arnon Grunberg, Drago Jančar, Lana Bastašić, Oksana Zabuzhko and Kamel Daoud – come collectively in the course of the Discussion board, in a dialog in regards to the Europe that lies forward of us and the function of the author in it.