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.not to men-tion that other nations commonly pay a bitter price in the moral field for similarsteps backward.24Cautious statements such as these were backed up by enthusiastic procla-mations of socialist feeling and depictions of the new world of socialism.Theroad to socialism stood clear, and Czech intellectuals were eager to travel it: We are riding the wave of the future, one pronounced.25 Not only was so-cialism exalted as an idea that professes human freedom in contrast to eco-nomic oppression and exploitation, but as the system that guaranteed the 206 Part III: The Meaning of Socialismgreatest degree of personal happiness and wealth. 26 Socialism was, in short, the moral duty of all people.the ideal of humanity realized in a newsocietal organization. 27 These are just a few examples of the promisingstatements that were splashed across the pages of democratic socialist jour-nals and newspapers.The infectious enthusiasm also gripped the two intellectual leaders of theircamp, men who were widely looked upon as defenders of moderation andviciously attacked as backward-looking by the communist press. ernýfound in socialism expressly and primarily the exultation of individualmoral qualities. For him, it was not possible to imagine a future world, onebetter than before, other than as socialist. 28 Even the moderate and realisticPeroutka envisaged socialism s bright future: Socialism is greatly and inti-mately in agreement with the psychological and material forces of the pres-ent and future.Socialism agrees with the moral condition of the majorityof humanity. In his usually sober view, socialism was the rosy future towhich sooner or later the whole world will turn. Czechs must therefore con-tribute to the creation of this future, so that they would be able to say withpride: I was there for it, I helped. 29 Nonetheless, he balanced his optimismwith concern over the form of socialism to which the nation was rushing:Our situation is this: only socialism is possible, but what kind of socialism is pos-sible? Socialism can bring humanity undreamed-of enrichment, but also un-dreamed-of impoverishment, according to which elements in it gain predomi-nance.It can be a joyous invitation to work, but it can also suddenly reverse intothe most detestable, dry system of barriers, restrictions, regulations, supervision,and suspicion, into a disaffection with humanity that hacks off everythinghigher.Behind it there can be eyes inflamed by creative enthusiasm, but alsoeyes green with envy.Socialism can order public affairs according to themost refined or the most backward of its members.It can support good or badqualities.30The characterizations of socialism in terms of morals, qualities, and libera-tion reveal the salient point of the democratic socialist understanding of so-cialism.It was less a question of nationalization, institutional reorganization,and industrial policy than one of creating what erný called a new socialistethos that was most often characterized as a socialist humanism.31 In promot-ing this conception, democratic socialists hoped to achieve two aims.Theyhoped to create, in the words of Frantiaek Kovárna, a socialism that looks forits origin and grounding in an ethical decision by establishing a foundationfor their socialist convictions which did not rely on Marxist theory.32 They alsosought to place the debate over the future of Czechoslovak socialism on theirhome ground of ethical and moral abstractions.Without the creation of an ex-plicitly new humanism, they argued, socialism would be nothing but a drynew arrangement of ownership and economic conditions. 33 Chapter 10: Socialism and Democratic Socialist Intellectuals 207Democratic socialists rested their social-humanist offensive on the longtradition of Czech humanism that had reached a pinnacle with Masaryk.Bydoing so, their socialism could be seen as part of a great inheritance fromthe past. The socialist component could then be extrapolated from the fail-ure of capitalism, which was the underlying meaning of the suffering of thewar.Finally, the concept bore the imprimatur of President Benea, the rally-ing point for noncommunist forces.In his often quoted speech to the Con-gress of Czech Writers in mid-1946, he argued that the subject of all our en-deavors and strivings.will be the struggle and is already today thestruggle for a new humanism. In this struggle, he called upon intellectu-als to serve as the pioneers, the warriors for this new world, this new hu-manism. 34 He made the source of the new humanism clear in a speech onemonth later, saying that through the use and explication of the principle ofeconomic democracy we must and will arrive at a new socialist morality. 35Democratic socialist intellectuals followed their president s lead, declaringthat humanism was undoubtedly the goal of socialism. 36 Even Machotka ar-gued, Socialist society must also have a new, socialist morality. More omi-nously, he assigned the intelligentsia the role of enforcers in this new moralregime: In the socialist state, every individual must be formed to be a suitableand effective element of the whole social organism.[As the USSR shows,] thebuilding of a new socialist society makes a rigorous upbringing in the socialistmorality necessary. 37 Benea military rhetoric was thereby raised to nothing lessthan a blueprint for a national re-education program aimed at forming the in-dividual into a new socialist citizen.Given this urge, it comes as no surprise thatin tandem with the struggle for socialist humanism came the struggle for thenew man, proclaimed by no less than Benea and taken up by others.38What, then, would be the components of this new, socialist morality? Theanswer to this question reveals a lack of positive content that was mirroredin so much democratic socialist writing.It would be heroic, active, [and]against evil, read one definition.More precisely, it would be characterizedby a positive position on socialist organization, the understanding of one sown vocation as a service to the whole, the understanding of labor as a joy-ous duty for the whole.and the striving for a socialist society. 39 This finalcharacteristic, a concept absolutely devoid of content that hinged on the def-inition of socialist culture itself, was explained by erný as being a magnif-icent search.And there must be a search because it [socialist culture] mustbe found! 40 Even the president admitted that he had no precise idea ofwhere he was leading his nation: A new world and a new life are being cre-ated.We do not have a precise and entirely clear conception of these newthings, but we are searching for them, we are struggling with them. 41These vague goals were supplemented by a much clearer view of what so-cialist culture would not be, one that corresponds to the middle course dem-ocratic socialist intellectuals were attempting to steer
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