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karol edward sołTan Moderate Modernity and the Spirit of 1989 What does it mean to see the world as a citizen, to see it in light of a civic ideal? What does it mean to see history in light of the civic ideal? In this essay, I will try to illustrate my answer to these questions. But the answer is, broadly speaking, this: It means to look at the world and its history in a new way, in which we see a world full of projects, some quite ancient, others recent. And we see them not in the way a spectator might see them, but as someone eager to take part in the great task of shared creation, and of developing ideas which support that task. We see a world in which outcomes are not distinguished by their probability, as a spectator might see it, but by their difficulty. And we see a world in which at least a significant number of constraints we face are not causal determinants, but impediments, and in which we can build instruments that help us to diminish, weaken and sometimes overcome those impediments. Some of the largest of these projects are extended over time, beyond the lives of those who take part in their creation. What people do, then, is in some part determined by their participation in long-term projects. So what they do is not necessarily best explained by their ideas and intentions. What they were thinking at the time is important, but not determinative, for the history of the ongoing project. There is a distinction familiar to hermeneutics, and especially to the study of law, that is important here: the distinction between the intent of the author (e.g. the legislature) and the intent of the text (e.g. the statute). To understand the text or the statute as an ongoing project, rather than a finished one, we attempt to articulate the intent of the text or the statute, not necessarily the intent of its author. We do not look for the mental states and beliefs of the author. In the same way we do not 70 THE END AND THE BEGINNING look for the intent of the author when we study the history of ongoing projects, except as clues they provide for the intent of the project itself. The Spirit of 1989 In this essay, I outline what I call “the spirit of 1989,” and suggest that it is best understood as part of a larger moderate project of modernity. I propose that we look at the events of 1989 from the perspective of the citizen, and embed these events in a much larger project. “The spirit of 1989” is a puzzling phrase. So let me begin by explaining both of its puzzling components: what do I mean by “spirit,” and what do I mean by “1989”? By “spirit” I mean that component of the culture of a time, a place, or a situation, which guides efforts to improve the world at that specific time and in that specific place. It is a key component of what we might call the potential for improvement contained in a situation. Of course, the spirit of most times and places is divided. Each time and place contains multiple projects, even multiple inclusive projects. However, very often, a few of these are dominant. So, for example, we can see the political history of much of Europe between 1789 and 1848 as a struggle between the forces that defended the inherited principle of dynastic legitimacy and the forces of improvement (reform and revolution) supporting liberty and the sovereignty of nations. The latter were the primary carriers of the spirit of that period. After 1848 we see the emergence of an alternative revolutionary project, an internationalist socialist revolution. So the spirit of that period became more deeply divided, as well as weaker and more narrowly contained . Idealism and its projects of improvement were marginalized; there were noticeably fewer revolutions in Europe after 1848. Realism and a preoccupation with survival (and hence security and order) were more dominant. Bismarck and Louis Napoleon are the representative figures of this period. Until 1917, Marxist revolutionary parties and their international organization were a contained threat. What happened in 1989 is of course a large and complex topic. What happens in any period of history is mostly a product of accident and error; most consequences are unintended. Beyond the randomness and chaos of accidents, beyond history’s unpredictability, what happens...

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