Gianni Vattimo

“I propose hermeneutic communism: non-dogmatic communism, weak communism. Only this can save us. [Is is] without essences, without absolutes to be realized at all costs. It is only an ideal of equitable society, a society that progressively weakens violence like dialectics.”

“I am Christian, therefore I am communist. The first Christian communities were very communist... except that they were expecting the immediate end of the world.”

“Soviet communism and Western capitalism share the same crazy ideology: forced industrialization of society.”

“Stalin imposed the development of heavy industry against agriculture and thence the displacement of people, the sacrifices, the deaths... A crazy dream! But... without the Stalinist industrial force, the Nazis would have won!”

“I grew up as a Catholic militant; when I was a boy I used to read authors like Jacques Maritain, Emmanuel Mounier and novelists like Bernanos. But Catholic inspiration led me also to read authors that were heretical to the modern tradition. I didn’t like rationalistic historicism that came from Enlightenment, peaking in Hegel and Marx.”

“I am a marxist, a leninist and I don't even consider disagreeable Stalin, who saved us from Hitler, more than the United States.”