mal-estar nacional -- para que fazer autocritica quando se pode ser o martir de um "golpe"? --, encontrei esta joia de Leszek Kolakowski, um ensaista polones famoso por sua historia do marxismo. Neste artigo, ainda que em tons levemente humoristicos, Kolakowski mostra o cerne do centrismo: pegar o melhor das ideologias disponiveis e tentar aplica-lo, evitando os exageros e deslizes que costumam vir no pacote. Nao tive tempo de traduzir, mas deixo aqui como registro.----------------"How to be aConservative-Liberal-Socialist"By Leszek KolakowskiMotto: "Please step forward tothe rear!" This is an approximate translation of a request I once heard ona tram-car in Warsaw. I propose itas a slogan for the mighty International that will never exist.AConservative Believes: 1. That in human life there neverhave been and never will be improvements that are not paid for withdeteriorations and evils; thus, in considering each project of reform andamelioration, its price has to be assessed. Put another way, innumerable evilsare compatible (i.e. we can suffer them comprehensively and simultaneously);but many goods limit or cancel each other, and therefore we will never enjoythem fully at the same time. A society in which there is no equality and noliberty of any kind is perfectly possible, yet a social order combining totalequality and freedom is not. The same applies to the compatibility of planningand the principle of autonomy, to security and technical progress. Put yetanother way, there is no happy ending in human history. 2. That we do not know the extentto which various traditional forms of social life--families, rituals, nations,religious communities--are indispensable if life in a society is to betolerable or even possible. There are no grounds for believing that when wedestroy these forms, or brand them as irrational, we increase the chance ofhappiness, peace, security, or freedom. We have no certain knowledge of whatmight occur if, for example, the monogamous family was abrogated, or if thetime-honored custom of burying the dead were to give way to the rationalrecycling of corpses for industrial purposes. But we would do well to expectthe worst. 3. That the idee fixe of the Enlightenment--that envy, vanity, greed, andaggression are all caused by the deficiencies of social institutions and thatthey will be swept away once these institutions are reformed-- is not onlyutterly incredible and contrary to all experience, but is highly dangerous. Howon earth did all these institutions arise if they were so contrary to the truenature of man? To hope that we can institutionalize brotherhood, love, andaltruism is already to have a reliable blueprint for despotism.ALiberal Believes:1. That the ancient idea that the purposeof the State is security still remains valid. It remains valid even if thenotion of "security" is expanded to include not only the protectionof persons and property by means of the law, but also various provisions ofinsurance: that people should not starve if they are jobless; that the poorshould not be condemned to die through lack of medical help; that childrenshould have free access to education--all these are also part of security. Yetsecurity should never be confused with liberty. The State does not guaranteefreedom by action and by regulating various areas