The Memory of 1968 as a Work of Mourning for the European Left
Abstract
My aim is to contribute in a modest way to the debate on the significance of the Prague Spring for both Czech and European memory. Particularly, I am interested in the importance of the defeat of the Prague Spring, and of 1968 in general, for the gradual disintegration of the European Left – first in its communist and later in its socialist form. Did the defeat, by allegedly expelling any genuinely democratic socialism in the realm of utopia, contribute to the neoliberal paradigm of the end of ideology? I want to propose the argument that more important than the defeat of 1968 itself was the incapacity of the European Left to come to terms with the defeat. Petr Pithart touched upon this question by reminding us that the way a society or a movement deals with its defeats is of vital significance for the democratic self-understanding in the future...