|
THE INSTITUTION OF SPIRIT ADVANCING BEYOND FORMER EUROPEAN DIVISIONS
Session of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts
Addres by the President of the Republic of Slovenia Milan Kucan
Ljubljana, National Galery, 6 November 1998
"The decision of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, to place me as President of the Republic of Slovenia among the patrons of this outstanding and supreme institution of both European and world sciences and arts, is a great honour. Indeed I accept it with gratitude and pleasure. And I also thank you for this honour on behalf of the country of Slovenia," President Kucan said when he was nominated Protector of this prestitious Academy.
The decision of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, to place me as President of the Republic of Slovenia among the patrons of this outstanding and supreme institution of both European and world sciences and arts, is a great honour. Indeed I accept it with gratitude and pleasure. And I also thank you for this honour on behalf of the country of Slovenia, which will, I am certain, continue in the future to appreciate and support your creative work to the benefit of peace and the general prosperity of all humankind, as well as your work for the respect of human dignity and the validity of all human rights, and for the equality of the ethnic and other entities throughout the world and particularly in Europe. I shall, to the best of my ability, endeavour to follow the fine example of all those who have already been appointed, the distinguished protectors Jacques Santer, Helmut Kohl, Vaclav Havel, Viktor Klima, Juan Carlos I and Arpad Göncz. I regard it as my duty, together with these figures, among whom I may count some good friends, to contribute towards the fulfilment of the noble aims of your Academy. My sincere thanks to you for the confidence and honour you have accorded me.
Distinguished Academicians,
When I think today about your decision, I am reminded of a moment when as a child I stood dumbfounded in front of a high and thickly woven barbed wire fence on the border with Hungary, not far from my grandmother's house. Overnight, the path had been closed to my Hungarian friends, with whom I had as a Slovene passed in children's games the cruel years of the Second World War and the Hungarian occupation. Later on, I often stood before this fence under the watchtower. And I understood nothing. In 1956, through this fence and across minefields, and at the cost of lives, came a wave of refugees. They were fleeing violence and machine-gun fire in search of freedom. That's what they said. They stopped here for a time, and then moved on, to Canada, to Australia. To a world with still more freedom and more opportunities. I remember my mother saying to my father, on hearing the night-time thundering of the tanks: "This division was born of evil, and it will bear still more evil".
When I was growing up, and later, when I entered the world of politics, which has been closely interwoven with my whole life, I came to understand these words more and more. Especially after the Prague Spring and its violent suppression. I understood, even in the increasingly antagonistic conditions and contradictions in the then Yugoslavia, that the world of real socialism in which I lived, had sooner or later to acquire a human face, and yield to the human aspiration and right to freedom. It seemed to me inevitable that sooner or later the iron curtain, and the world behind it, would collapse, for the division was unnatural, it was the fruit of force and not reason, and it was therefore only possible to maintain it with even greater evil. I knew that all the European walls with which this evil had been built would have to fall, if the European spirit were to free itself and return to its search for the human person and respect of human dignity.
I understood that people would pull these walls down, since for too long there had been too much constriction of their freedom and - in the name of the totalitarian ideology of discredited Soviet communism - imprisonment of their soul. These walls could only be pulled down by the people who lived within them. And in the end they indeed possessed sufficient strength to pull them down. This was a good sign for Europe and for all the world.
These people, including the Slovenians, brought with them to the present day ideals which have helped them to find inner peace, so that they were able in all honour, before history and their own conscience, to perform this great act. And only with a belief in these ideals, and without vengeance. They also brought with them experience. This was an experience which has been added to the horrific European experience with Fascism and Nazism, and confirmed the pernicious nature of any idea which disregarded the human person. This was an experience of the shocking dissipation of the vital strength of nations which are forced into an alien civilisation that is not founded upon and has not formulated its internal relations and substance of life on their authentic spiritual and value tradition. This was an experience of how pernicious are forced divisions between people, nations, cultures and civilisations. Yet these people also brought with them hope. They had a faith that from the ruins of the wall there would grow a different, new Europe, which would not simply be a negation of the former political Eastern Europe or simply an expansion of the former West to the East. The ruins of the collapsing wall came down on all sides. And from them it is now possible to build a Europe which will live in security, freedom, peace, creativity and prosperity, and which will be founded on respect of human dignity and human rights. Whether this will indeed come about is of course impossible for anyone to know with any certainty. But now Europe has hope. It has an opportunity which is greater and more realistic than ever before in its history; an opportunity to leave behind its tragic history, to make its way to a future which will in its essence be agreeable for all Europeans. This is an opportunity to pull down for ever the remains of all the walls which divided it. For the sake of the future and in responsibility to the generations which will come after us. And also so that there will be no more children standing in front of barbed wire fences, staring through them without comprehending.
Is this an illusion? The people who went through all the severe trials of this contradictory, challenging and in its own way terribly turbulent European century, which, as we may see now, is ultimately ending in a triumph of reason, these people have a right to such illusions. They also have the possibility and strength to turn this aspiration, this vision into reality - provided that there is enough internal strength for them to avoid being overwhelmed by difficulties, to search unstintingly for those things which make up the very best of the European tradition, and to fight valiantly against everything that made up the worst of its tradition. Provided that they open up the path to coexistence and cooperation, to the right to be different, to hold one's own truth, to dialogue and tolerance, to common responsibility, and provided that these efforts are founded on a mission to expand the area of freedom for the human person. And provided that these efforts are founded on a sense of European responsibility for the future common, agreeable human world. Provided, too, that they do not remain silent when it becomes necessary to speak out in defence of European peace. In the words of Vaclav Havel, one of the patrons of the European Academy: "Through the dictates of one's own conscience, and humble reflection on these dictates."
And why am I speaking of this? Because I believe that the European Academy of Sciences and Arts is the very institution of the spirit which is boldly advancing beyond the boundaries of the former European divisions, and which is the harbinger of the new Europe. It possesses only the power of reason and creative genius, the moral integrity and professional authority of its members, and for this reason it may also represent, as the guardian of the values held within the finest European civilisational tradition, the most convincing herald of the European future. It possesses the powerful desire to live in truth and to search for the truth about the human person, society, nature and the world. For this reason I wish the Academy all good fortune and success in carrying out its mission.
Distinguished Academicians,
I would like to assure you that the country of Slovenia is both proud and pleased to be hosting in its capital of Ljubljana the plenary session of the Academiae Scientiarum et Artium Europaea. We may without any reservation rank this Academy among those post-modern European creations representing the backbone of the network of European institutions, symbols and creative nuclei of the new European home, and which stand in support of this home as it secures its place in the globalising world. We are pleased that there are as many as twenty-seven Slovenian scientists who are members of your worthy institution, and that they are collaborating in the distinguished company of scientists and artists from other European countries, from the USA, Canada, South America, Asia and Australia. This is further proof of the great scientific, artistic and spiritual creativity of Slovenian society, which has centuries of historical experience of the priceless importance of cultural and scientific institutions in preserving and reaffirming national uniqueness, of being open to all others and cooperating creatively in the most demanding human projects. Through this experience and creativity, the Slovenian nation - a historical nation - constituted itself, and despite its small number it survived what were frequently the inclement cross-currents of history. The Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts is one of the most faithful witnesses of this experience.
At the plenary session in Ljubljana you will be devoting your attention to one of the fundamental questions for humankind in the post-modern period; that is, the question what is science? I have every reason to believe that in the encounter between differing views and aspects of the substance of this Promethean issue for humankind, you will take into consideration entirely its enormous significance, as well as the pitfalls concealed within it, whenever we disregard the temporal limitation of human reason and the universal validity of ethical values. I believe in particular that the results of your plenary session will provide new and useful stimuli for the most creative and carefully considered pan-European scientific linking, for associating expertise and knowledge, for scientific thought is a cornerstone of the new European value system and in many respects is shaping the European soul. In this light, too, your current work will help in creating the new world civilisation of peace, tolerance, mutual respect and understanding, and in development which will benefit all people in the millennium that awaits us.
|
