Abstract
This essay offers an interpretation of 1989 that eschews a conventional reading of the Eastern European revolutions as historically specific “events” tied to a particular “place.” Emphasizing the normative—philosophical dimension of 1989, the article examines central issues of power and violence, in the process highlighting the appeal of the ethico-political imperative to reconcile means and ends in order to democratize the future without sacrificing the moral integrity of the present. A brief assessment of liberal and Marxist assumptions about the relationship between power and violence, and means and ends, points to the distinct possibility that both traditions embrace a surprisingly similar conception of power. This “realism of violence” is contrasted with Václav Havel’s alternative view of politics as morality in action. Havel’s conception bears a striking similarity to ideas presented by the principal thinkers of the 20th-century “Gandhian tradition.” While 1989 may have many meanings, its moral emphasis on the compatibility of means and ends employed in a political struggle of nonviolent power against oppressive regimes is certainly one of the most remarkable legacies of this annus mirabilis.
