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A recent article in the National Interest by Francis Fukuyama, (brought to the wider reading public's attention in a feature in The New York Times Magazine), proclaimed, as the author himself put it, ?the end of history.? Recent developments in the Soviet Union and the eastern bloc suggest, the author (an official in the State Department) tells us, that the universal struggle for individual rights and freedom is, at least in the post‑industrial world, coming to a happy conclusion. ?History,? which according to Hegel is the struggle of the ?Absolute Spirit? (imminent in man) to achieve its potential in ?Freedom,? is concluding with the all but acknowledged triumph of democracy, individualism and capitalism in the last bastion of its opposition, the communist world.

One certainly need not deride (dismiss??) the obviously positive developments in Poland, Hungary and East Germany to be skeptical of Mr.? Fukuyama's thesis and to hope that the current administration sees nothing but an amusing essay in the musings of its junior official. To give Santayana's phrase an appropriate turn: ?Those who proclaim the end of history are doomed to repeat it.? One need only reflect upon the optimists of the late 1800's who saw the ?progress? in that century's industrialization and national emancipations as a portent of only better and greater things to come. As Jews, we know all too well the gross naivet? at the core of this view of human progress. The most advanced, and, from a certain perspective, ?enlightened,? nation in history was to become, in several decades, a monomaniacal machine of unspeakable terror.

The problem, it would seem, is that ?freedom? despite all its virtues, is by itself a poor container for our hopes in the progress of mankind. Indeed, the major totalitarian regimes of our own century were each predicated, in one way or another, on the concept of freedom and liberation. The human spirit appears to be such that in its yearning for absolute freedom it is often quite willing to surrender itself to demagoguery, and in its quest for authentic personal expression it allows itself to be caught up in sadistic hatred. One need not look only to those German intellectuals (Heidegger comes foremost to mind) who having articulated a philosophy of ?authenticity? and liberated existence, marched quickly in step to the tune of National Socialism. One can also look, perhaps a bit more uncomfortably, closer to home to Americans, (such as those who have been taken in by Werner Erhard's EST and ?The Forum?) who seek personal liberation and yet willingly surrender themselves to an arbitrary, autocratic and manipulative rule. A particularly irksome case is that of Professor Joseph Campbell, the latest guru of personal freedom and liberation whose posthumously aired series of television interviews with Bill Moyers were viewed and lauded by millions, and whose interest in the myths and heroes of the Greeks, Druids, and Celts (does this sound familiar?) along with his off‑quoted (and remarkably narcissistic ) aphorism ?follow your bliss? belied, according to a number of his colleagues, a ?cryptofacism? and bigotry against, among others, Blacks and Jews.

As Jews we, too, value freedom and liberation and we too look forward with great anticipation to ?the end of history?. Yet, we are neither so naive nor so idolatrous of the freedoms offered us in a democratic, free market society to proclaim them the be‑all and end‑all of historical life. We recognize that such freedoms are merely an opportunity to pursue even greater levels of human compassion, justice and charity. Yet, without their realization, history will still continue in all its glory and shame.