As a rule, dictatorships guarantee safe streets and terror of the doorbell. In democracy the streets may be unsafe after dark, but the most likely visitor in the early hours will be the milkman.
ADAM MICHNIKAs a rule, dictatorships guarantee safe streets and terror of the doorbell. In democracy the streets may be unsafe after dark, but the most likely visitor in the early hours will be the milkman.
ADAM MICHNIKThe call to finally clean house is a propaganda tool of the right, which tolerates the leftists who it condemns.
ADAM MICHNIKI think you can be an enemy of Saddam Hussein even if Donald Rumsfeld is also an enemy of Saddam Hussein.
ADAM MICHNIKThey want a gradual coup. If Orbán stayed in power in Hungary or if Kaczynski were to win an election in our country, it would be dangerous.
ADAM MICHNIKI think it’s always dangerous to make political arguments in a religiously ideological way. And it’s very dangerous to treat as traitors to the American nation those who think differently.
ADAM MICHNIKStart doing the things you think should be done, and start being what you think society should become.
ADAM MICHNIKBoth men have an authoritarian idea of government; democracy is merely a façade.
ADAM MICHNIKDo you believe in an open society? Then act in the open. Do you believe in a decent and humane society? Then behave decently and humanely.
ADAM MICHNIKToday we reject the notion of equality between a regime that belongs to the democratic world – even if it is conservative and disagreeable – and a totalitarian dictatorship, whether its colors are black, red, or green.
ADAM MICHNIKA part of society in our countries would still prefer an authoritarian regime today. These are people with the mentality of Homo sovieticus. But they also exist in France – just think of Le Pen – and even in Finland and Sweden.
ADAM MICHNIKI consider that 9/11 was the day when war was started against my own work and against myself.
ADAM MICHNIKEven though we are not sure of the links, Iraq was one of the countries that did not lower its flags in mourning on 9/11.
ADAM MICHNIKIf you’re powerful, you are much more likely to be blind and deaf to signals from outside.
ADAM MICHNIKThe main difference between the Prague Spring and the Velvet Revolution was that the former was mostly the work of Communist party members and others who wanted to bring about ‘socialism with a human face.’
ADAM MICHNIKIsrael is the only country in the Middle East where Arabs can be elected to the parliament in a democratic election.
ADAM MICHNIKWe still have politicians who strive for a different type of country: Kaczynski as well as Orbán in Hungary.
ADAM MICHNIK