Leszek Kołakowski : In Stalin's Countries: Theses on Hope and Despair (1971) [page 6]

Leszek Kołakowski : In Stalin's Countries: Theses on Hope and Despair (1971)  [page 6]

Leszek Kołakowski : In Stalin's Countries: Theses on Hope and Despair (1971)  [page 6]

 [page 6]

    in times of crisis, but they do not change the natural tendency of the system which, by its nature, considers competence and the spirit of initiative to be suspect.


    The various elements of the ruling machine are subjected to this process of counter-selection to different degrees;

thus,  in numerous areas of economic and industrial administration one can always find a considerable number of competent and courageous men who stubbornly beat their heads against the walls of indifference, fear and incompetence with which the party apparat has surrounded itself.


They are, however, much rarer in the apparat itself, as well as in its political and propagandistic ramifications, where the principle of the selection of mediocrities has had its greatest victories.


    Despotic forms of government necessarily produce the need for permanent, or at least periodic, aggression. That war is the grave of democracy, we have known for centuries. For the  same reason, it is the ally of tyranny.


In default of an external war, various forms of internal aggression, aimed at maintaining a constant state of menace and building up the psychosis of a beleaguered fortress -- even if this is in favor of the most artificial processes and against the most chimerical enemies -- fulfill similar functions.


Repeated aggression against different groups of the population, chosen in accordance with the most    diverse criteria, is not at all a result of madness, but a natural function of the power mechanism, which cannot do without mortal enemies allegedly lying in wait to exploit its slightest weakness:.


This is the only means it has to maintain, as it desires, its capacity for mobilizing social energies.


It creates its own enemies and, in face of the resistance and hostility which this continued aggression provokes in those persecuted, it creates in effect an imaginary situation which serves precisely as a pretext for repression.


The repressive system thus has a capacity for self-perpetuation, and acts of internal aggression engender the need for further such acts.



    Destroying All Social Links

    This same characteristic of monopolistic power demands a continued effort for the atomization of society and the destruction  of all forms of social life not prescribed by the ruling apparat.

Since social conflicts are not settled, but merely stifled by repression and dissimulated by ideological phraseology, the most diverse ways of expression are utilized:

the most innocent forms of social organization can in effect, if they are not placed