Aron’s Principles

Abstract

Beginning in 1930… I felt, almost physically, the approach of historical storms. ‘History is again on the move’, in the words of Arnold Toynbee. 1 am still marked by this experience, which inclined me towards an active pessimism Once and for all, I ceased to believe that history automatically obeys the dictates of reason or the desires of men of good will. I lost faith and held on, not without effort, to hope. I discovered the enemy that 1 as well do not tire of pursuing, totalitarianism, an enemy no less insidious than Malthusianism. In any form of fanaticism, even one inspired by idealism, 1 suspect a new incarnation of the monster.