Velvet President: Why Vaclav Havel is our era’s George Orwell and more. (from 2003)
Tribute from President George W. Bush – “The most subversive act of the playwright from Prague was telling the truth about tyranny. And when that truth finally triumphed, the people elected this dignified, charming, humble, determined man to lead their country.”
And finally, in his own words.
The post-totalitarian system touches people at every step, but it does so with its ideological gloves on. This is why life in the system is so thoroughly permeated with hypocrisy and lies: government by bureaucracy is called popular government; the working class is enslaved in the name of the working class; the complete degradation of the individual is presented as his ultimate liberation; depriving people of information is called making it available; the use of power to manipulate is called the public control of power, and the arbitrary abuse of power is called observing the legal code; the repression of culture is called its development; the expansion of imperial influence is presented as support for the oppressed; the lack of free expression becomes the highest form of freedom; farcical elections become the highest form of democracy; banning independent thought becomes the most scientific of world views; military occupation becomes fraternal assistance. Because the regime is captive to its own lies, it must falsify everything. It falsifies the past. It falsifies the present, and it falsifies the future. It falsifies statistics. It pretends not to possess an omnipotent and unprincipled police apparatus. It pretends to respect human rights. It pretends to persecute no one. It pretends to fear nothing. It pretends to pretend nothing.
A great man. He lived through the misery of ’68, and was able to see the dream realized. RIP.
James Baker,U.S. secretary of stste once said this about Havel,”You can do business with the United States or you can do business with Frank Zappa.”
A very interesting man, RIP,Mr.Havel.
Agree. A great man. His career illustrates why it is very important (VERY important) to remain open minded …. 🙂
Season’s greetings, all. Treats for the dogs, all.
MM
Havel, a great man who lead a country, and never turned into a politician:-))
A man who was brave enough to defy communism, no wonder he did not want to surender his nation’s sovereignty to the next wave of totalitarianism represented by Kyoto
I have MANY Czech friends. Some of the finest people I’ve ever met. Just like Václav Havel was. What a tremendous loss.
Wow! He wrote that bit behind the Iron Curtain in 2011, not in the West today.
Wow! He wrote that bit behind the Iron Curtain in 2011, not in the West today.
Meant to say 1978.
The two Vaclavs make me proud to have been born Czech. If Europe were to be governed by Vaclav Klaus today, it would escape the melt-down of 2012.
Rest in peace, Vaclav, you’ve earned it with your courage and your never ending quest for freedom. A true hero of the ages of which we have far too few.
A great man who will be sadly missed. The world needs many more like him.
“Wow! He wrote that bit behind the Iron Curtain in 2011, not in the West today.
Meant to say 1978.”
Oh,I assumed you meant Washington,D.C.,2011, scar.
Mr.Havel will be greatly missed for his clarity of thought and willingness to speak those thoughts unabridged, “the complete degradation of the individual is presented as his ultimate liberation”
Truer words….
What an excellent account of the ideological mind! Does it remind you of any institutions near you?
Rest in Peace Vaclav.
My Great Uncle ran the Radio Free Europe Czech Division which reported back to Czechs what Vaclav was writing and doing. Few people realize how mammoth the effort to inform Czechs of Vaclav’s and others activities was during the communist era. That entire effort was funded by the USA … that’s why Vaclav cherished the United States. He was the un-Chomsky … the un-Obama.
For the record, my Uncle and other Czech patriots viewed the modern “progressive” movement as the little child of the communists. My Great Uncle used to say … when the curtain came down the rats escaped into the West to lie in wait. He warned me once to never forget that socialists and communists always arrive on the wings of “social justice”, just as they did in the Czech Republic after WW2.
Havel recognized the Marxists moved from the fall of communism to the new totalitarianism – the radical environmentalism of climate change/Kyoto.
He recognized neo-environmentalism as collectivism re-jigged. He saw their tactics as the same as those employed by the collectivist world, (attempting to gain the power apparatus needed to carry out their goals) and exposed them in a truly eloquent way.
What a great legacy. Thank you Václav Havel, and by extension, thank you PM Harper.
The full text of “The Power of the Powerless” can be found here:
http://vaclavhavel.cz/index.php?sec=6&id=2&kat=&from=6&setln=2
The essay is about 40 pages long and deserves to be read and contemplated as a description and dissection of life, not only in Soviet-dominated Eastern Europe, but of the society we in the “West” are busy creating for ourselves.
Requiscat In Pace
A great man! RIP, Václav Havel.
I don’t like his term post-totalitarianism. Actually, I hardly ever like “post” stuff. Recall Obama’s putative post-racialism. “Post” suggests that human nature changes over time. Probably he means “soft totalitarianism”. To me, “post” means same old same old in a different guise.
Also, in the first paragraph of his own words in the link, I dislike his use of the word “ideology”. He seems to be equating ideology with deceit/self-deceit. He seems to use the term pjoratively.
I have an ideology: maximal personal freedom, rampant individualism, minimal nightwatchman-style government and non-intervention in the monetary system and the economy. Am I blinded by my “ideology”? Or do we all need some SET of ideas, which is all an ideology means to me.
His fondness for the US of A seems to be somewhat blind tho, eh? The senate just approved an act (93 to 7) to allow any terrorism (a fluid term) SUSPECT to be jailed indefinitely while the threat is active, viz., for ever. Obama has decided to stay his originally promised veto.
A very rare kind of Human being. A handful like him in history, that put the need for individual freedom above personnel power. His community over gain.
God bless Václav Havel. He will be missed. He spoke the truth when so many other “leaders” (sic) were lying through their teeth to their people.
He was a playwright, for crying out loud. Lech Wałęsa (Poland) was an electrician. Both of them stepped outside their areas of expertise to lift high the flag of freedom in their oppressed countries. They have our undying gratitude.
Rest eternal grant unto him, O Lord. And may light perpetual shine upon him. May he rest in peace. Amen.
Cjunk @ 1:23, exactly and you say it well.
The “progressives” are working hard at taking control here.
Me No Dhimmi at 1:42 PM
the man was an intellect ( in the true definition of the word), not a sooth sayer who could predict the future, his words were relevent in their time, maybe less so today
That’s a fair point, GYM.
It seems though that, rather than toward personal freedom and democracy, the most powerful forces are toward totalitarianism esp. when we get soft and cozy and forget (or never learned) the mainsprings of our good fortune. We get happy, fat and then … repressed.
I find myself trying to imagine the depths of courage this man drew on. Most of us, here in the West, and including on this blog (but not our Special K), haven’t had to take any real risk to state our conservative/libertarian views. For now!?
Coming soon?: the internet kill switch which will be sold as copyright protection.
“He recognized neo-environmentalism as collectivism re-jigged.”
You are mixing Vaclav Havel, the writer, with Vaclav Klaus, the politician.
Vaclav Havel championed eco movement, was pro-EU and championed fighting climate change (aka AGW).
Vaclav Klaus is against EU as a trans-national entity, and is AGW skeptic.
****
Vaclav Havel was a great man, was an great author, and will be remembered as an anti-communist.
He will be always remembered, but not for what he had promoted recently.
R.I.P.
Yup. He reminds me so much of that Canadian leader…you know….what’s his name…darn, why can’t I remember his name?
Find Havel’s short play “The Memorandum”. Very, very funny.
And very, very disturbing.
Interesting that one very good man (Vaclav Havel) and one very bad one (no need to name names) died on the same day.
Rest in peace, Vaclav Havel.
The remarkable bravery and integrity of the patriot shine from that piece like burnished gold, and is a rebuke to everyone who sits still as the new totalitarians destroy our good society.