1. The event of the ‘fall of socialist regimes’ was not an event. These regimes had in fact been dead for a long time.
2. In no way did this death signify the failure of communism. Communism had already often failed and it will fail again. But it is also continually victorious. It is the only available Idea in the history of human beings.
3. The failure should not be attributed either to the despotic character of socialist states or to their economic shortcomings. It is the withering away of politics which made these constructions untenable for their own leaders. And in all this, people played practically no part.
4. The political crisis that these collapses bear witness to is a crisis in the West just as much as in the East. It is a general crisis.