In his lecture Meri described the different ways of thinking in East and West and pointed out that while the West is based on enterprise and openness to other cultures, with the inviolability of private property a legal guarantee, the characteristic feature of the East is despotic power. The modern Western world is based on the nation state, he went on, which contrary to the wishes of both supporters and opponents of globalization, has not ceased to exist.
According to Meri, accession to international organizations does not mean a nation has to give up its sovereignty. It merely has to readjust its interests.
This is true also with respect to the European Union and NATO, he said. "Evil always takes the initiative, but justice always wins. This is the experience of the whole 20th century. That experience has steered Estonia toward our common Western values."
"Berliner Lektionen" started in 1987 and is organized by the Bertelmann media group together with Berliner Festspiele. The lectures feature politicians, scientists, writers, artists, actors, poets and economists as speakers.
The likes of writers Gunter Grass and Nadine Gordimer, poet Yevgeni Yevtushenko, actor Klaus Maria Brandauer, musician Yehudi Menuhin, and politicians Willy Brandt, Henry Kissinger and Mikhail Gorbachev have spoken there in the past.
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