“day by day democracy is proving itself to be a not at all fragile flower.” ⊙ 배경
이 연설은 40대 미 대통령인 로널드 레이건이 런던 웨스트민스터 의회에서 행한 연설이다.
레이건 대통령은 소련의 경제 상황을 근거로 소련의 몰락을 예측했지만 당시 그의 말을 받아들이는 사람은 아무도 없었다.
하부구조와 상부구조의 모순에서 혁명적 위기가 도래한다는 마르크스의 말을 빗대 소련 체제의 위기를 규정한 부분이 흥미롭다.
⊙ 원문 읽기
We're approaching the end of a bloody century plagued by a terrible political invention －－ totalitarianism.
Optimism comes less easily today，not because democracy is less vigorous，but because democracy's enemies have refined their instruments of repression.
Yet optimism is in order because day by day democracy is proving itself to be a not at all fragile flower.
From Stettin on the Baltic to Varna on the Black Sea，the regimes planted by totalitarianism have had more than thirty years to establish their legitimacy.
But none －－ not one regime －－ has yet been able to risk free elections.
Regimes planted by ①bayonets do not take root.
The strength of the Solidarity movement in Poland demonstrates the truth told in an underground joke in the Soviet Union.
It is that the Soviet Union would remain a one－party nation even if an opposition party were permitted because everyone would join the opposition party…
Historians looking back at our time will note the consistent restraint and peaceful intentions of the West.
They will note that it was the democracies who refused to use the threat of their nuclear monopoly in the forties and early fifties for territorial or imperial gain.
Had that nuclear monopoly been in the hands of the Communist world，the map of Europe－－indeed，the world－－would look very different today.
And certainly they will note it was not the democracies that invaded Afghanistan or suppressed Polish Solidarity or used chemical and toxin warfare in Afghanistan and Southeast Asia.
