Three notes about communism and anticommunism responsibility

• Main Author: Mihail Radu Solcan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Facultatea de Stiinte Politice, SNSPA 2014-12-01
• Series: Sfera Politicii
• Subjects: communist ideal; Paradoxes of communism; anticommunism; communism process
• Online Access: http://www.sferapoliticii.ro/sfera/182/art13-Solcan.php

These are three loosely connected philosophical notes. The first note starts with a reflection on the idea that bad people (on top) defiled the communist ideal. The argument is that the descriptive phrase „the communist ideal“ cannot logically fulfil the uniqueness claim (and, in a coherent way, the universal claim) for its denotation. This leaves a large space for (good or bad) people’s responsibility. The second note makes a distinction between an anticommunism focused on a conspiracy theory and an anticommunism focused on an institutional criticism of communism. It argues that this distinction casts doubts on the usual division in political analysis between left and right. The third text notes the practical impossibility of a complete legal or ethical trial of communism according to usual standards of justice. The only solution would be a Raskolnikov-like awakening in the consciousness of the potential defendants. This situation, at least in Romania, seems to solidify a right inflamed by bold rhetoric and a left unable to look critically at the past.