I have just read a report that a hot fight over a proposed strike is going on between hardliners and “softliners” inside the Polish Communist Party. The advocates of the “soft” position are calling for concessions to the Solidarity union to soften the attitude of the promoters of the strike. The hardliners … Read more
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A friend recently arrived from Paris told me he had seen a unique play. The plot was not taken from literary fiction, but from a phase in the history of France. Scenes from the frantic, filthy and bloody debacle of the Terror were represented on the stage with the most rigorously authentic … Read more
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I am writing on Tuesday morning. Today’s papers in Brazil and the world are reporting still another change of nuance in the overall picture of the situation in Poland. The success of the various strike movements has forced the Communist Party there to sweep out the Premier. In view of the liberalizing … Read more
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“An extremely rare ‘Social Revolution’ is being carried out in the United States,” affirmed El Mercurio (8-25-80), the newspaper with the largest circulation in the Chilean capital, on publishing a news dispatch coming from Los Angeles, California. The dispatch gives a profound explanation to the phenomenon which so roundly contradicted the predictions … Read more
In my last article, I analyzed an aspect of the reaction of the Brazilian public to the personality of John Paul II. This widespread reaction went like immense vibrations through large masses in all sectors of public opinion. In a tumultuous movement of joy, men of the left, the center, and the … Read more
The well-known Parisian weekly L’Express recently published an article by Jean François Revel entitled “La fin des berceuses,” that is, “The End of Lullabies.” The dictator Tito appears on the cover in a photograph one could call surrealistic, but which in fact, is magnificently realistic, thoroughly revealing his sinister face, physiognomy and … Read more
No one writes or speaks about the obvious. It jumps right out at you. It imposes itself like a hard fact. It needs no descriptions or commentaries. An acute observer discerns a reality (a person, a situation, a thing) at the very moment it rises on the faraway horizon. An ordinary observer … Read more
The French Revolution numbers among her antiquated enthusiasms. Lafayette, Mirabeau, Danton, Marat, Robespierre—she jumbles them all in the same feverish admiration. She still rants against the bloodthirsty rage of Louis XVI and the bacchanalia of Marie Antoinette. She is sure that when the Bastille was taken, it was found to be crammed … Read more
The precise evaluation of the importance of an event can only rarely be achieved by the employing of just one criterion. Much more than this is normally required. In fact, it behooves one to consider all of the criteria applicable to the case, in order to be able to arrange them immediately … Read more
What exactly is an anti-communist? This is a question which appears to be so simple of resolution as to border on being foolish. However, there are different ways in which it may be answered. If we consider only the two most common responses to it being given nowadays, we should see that … Read more