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For the last half century, Europe has been haunted by the demons of repentance. Ruminating over its past crimes-slavery, imperialism, fascism, communism-it has seen its history as nothing but a long litany of murder and rapine culminating in two world wars. The typical European man or woman is a sensitive creature always prepared to feel pity for the sufferings of the world and to assume responsibility for them, always asking what the North can do for the South rather than what the South can do for itself. By the evening of September 11, a majority of our citizens, despite their obvious sympathy for the victims, were telling themselves that the Americans had it coming. Make no mistake: the same argument would have been made if the terrorists had destroyed the Eiffel Tower or Notre Dame. Sensitive souls on both right and left would have urged us to flagellate ourselves: we've been attacked, so we're guilty. Our attackers are really poor people protesting against our insolent wealth and our western lifestyle. We Europeans spontaneously agree with our enemies in the way we judge ourselves, and we take shelter from the furies of the age by focusing on everyday economic and social problems.
The Ambiguities of Masochism
Europe gave birth to monsters. No doubt. But by the same token, it created the ideas that enable us to analyze and to destroy those monsters. Europe has an extraordinary and paradoxical nature. Consider the history. Feudal tyranny led to democracy, oppression by the church led to freedom of conscience, rivalry among nations led to the dream of an international community, overseas conquests led to anticolonialism, and revolutionary ideologies led to antitotalitarian movements. Like a jailer who throws you into a prison cell while slipping you the key, Europe simultaneously gave the world despotism and freedom. It sent soldiers, missionaries, and merchants to subdue distant lands. But it also invented anthropology, a way of seeing ourselves as others see us and of seeing others as they truly are. It moves us away from ourselves in order to come closer to the Other. The colonial adventure perished from its own basic contradiction. Colonialism subjected some continents to the laws of another continent and at the same time fostered the idea of nationhood and the right of self-determination. When the colonized demanded freedom, they simply turned against their masters the rules those masters taught them. Ever since the conquistadors, Europe has combined the greatest progress with the greatest cruelty. Still, a civilization guilty of the worst atrocities and capable of the most sublime achievements should not feel only remorse. The West did not invent genocide, but it invented the concept of "crimes against humanity." After 1945, Europe distanced itself from its own barbarism by giving these words a more precise definition-at the risk of turning the accusation of barbarism against itself...
