Tópico: para ukrainian, com amor

[Rodion]

http://socialistregister.com/socialistregister.com/files/SR_1974_Kolakowski.pdf

[Rodion]

Well, Thompson, I really do not attribute to you this way of thinking.
Still I cannot help noticing your use of double standards of evaluation.
And when I say "double standards" I do not mean indulgence for the
justifiable inexperience of the "new society" in coping with new
problems. I mean the use, alternatively, of political or moral standards
to similar situations and this I find unjustifiable. We must not be fervent
moralists in some cases and Real-politikers or philosophers of world
history in others, depending on political circumstances. This is a point
I would like to make clear to you if we are to understand each other.
I will quote to you (from memory) a talk with a Latin-American
revolutionary who told me about torture in Brazil. I asked: "What is
wrong with torture?" and he said: "What do you mean? Do you
suggest it is all right? Are you justifying torture?" And I said: "On
the contrary, I simply ask you if you think that torture is a morally
inadmissible monstrosity." "Of course," he replied. "And so is torture
in Cuba?", I asked. "Well, he answered, this is another thing. Cuba is
a small country under the constant threat of American imperialists.
They have to use all means of self-defence, however regrettable."