À la fin de son dernier livre, rédigé en 1875, Critique du programme Gotha, Karl Marx écrit cette phrase mystérieuse, en latin: “Dixi et salvavi animam meam” (“Je ne dis ça que pour sauver mon âme”). Comme s’il voulait faire comprendre à ses lecteurs que le programme politique qu’il venait de proposer aux socialistes allemands n’avait, à ses yeux, pas la moindre chance d’être appliqué; comme s’il pensait que personne, jamais, n’aurait le courage, ni les moyens, de maîtreser le capitalisme de ses conséquences, à la fois enthousiasmantes et suicidaires.

From Jacques Attali’s Une brève histoire de l’avenir, Paris: Fayard, 2006, p. 361.

Addendum (August 22, 2008)

If any explanation is needed in connection with this quote, this is Jacques Attali’s answer to my query several days ago (“Too Optimistic by Half: An Electronic-Mail Message to Jacques Attali,” August 18, 2008). And it comes from his own book, too. In fact, this is the paragraph with which he opens his chapter on global democracy to come. Had I discovered it before I wrote to him, I would not have written to him, either. And there would be no need for his answer, which is still pending. In short, global democracy following the upcoming global conflict is but a pipedream. Whence a deep bow to old Marx, of course. Global democracy is only a logical possibility of capitalist development as Attali understands it, but it is as unlikely as hell ever freezing over. The collapse of the Roman world is still the only viable model of what lies ahead. If my vision differs from that of Attali’s, it is only in terms of timing. In my mind, he is way too optimistic about the future.