Why We Need More Leaders Like Vaclav Havel
Vaclav Havel died today at age 75. As Bruce Bawer wrote below in 2008, the courageous playwright who destroyed Communism in Czechoslovakia could teach us much about the need to defend Western freedoms against totalitarian Islam. Read more from Michael Ledeen at the Tatler.
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In these decadent times when powerful people in the West cannot conceive of any response to totalitarian jihad other than rank appeasement, and when the name of Che Guevara, a bloodthirsty Stalinist and enemy of freedom, is synonymous with heroism, it is vital that free people be familiar with — and honor — the examples of those valiant few who, living under totalitarianism, have stood up to it with a courage that today’s appeasers of Islam could hardly imagine.
Among the greatest of these heroes is Vaclav Havel.
Born in 1936, Havel spent his early years under the two major twentieth-century varieties of totalitarianism — first Nazism, then Communism. When the Communists took over Czechoslovakia after World War II, instituting a system under which, as Havel biographer Edá Kriseová writes, “[e]veryone was afraid of his neighbor” and “[p]eople disappeared without a trace,” they confiscated the Havel family’s money and the theater they owned. In 1949, Havel’s father was imprisoned and interrogated for several weeks; three years later, the Havels’ home and possessions were taken from them as part of a new policy under which class enemies were to be removed from Prague. News of the latter development gave Havel’s maternal grandfather a stroke from which he died; meanwhile Havel’s uncle Miloš, after spending two years in prison and labor camp as punishment for having run a movie studio, escaped to West Germany with the help of American troops — whereupon his name, according to Kriseová, was “erased from the history of Czech film.”
Prohibited from being a full-time university student because he was the son of bourgeois parents, Havel cobbled together an education by working as a chem lab apprentice, attending night classes, and studying economics and, later, drama. In 1952, when Havel was sixteen, the Czechoslovak government tried thirteen people on trumped-up charges of conspiracy to overthrow the Communist regime. The questions and answers were scripted, the defendants found guilty (the verdict, of course, having been preordained), and all but two of the convicts executed, their ashes, as Kriseová writes, “shoveled into sacks and scattered on an icy side road in the outskirts of Prague.” This was only one of many “crazed experiment[s] in the arts of legalized terror” that took place in Czechoslovakia at the time, the purpose of which was not to punish real criminals or dissidents but to maintain an atmosphere of terror and reaffirm the state’s power to do what it pleased. Such “experiments” had the desired effect: most people in Czechoslovakia kept a low profile. But not Havel: determined to work in the theater, he continued to write plays — mostly critiques of Communist utopianism and dogmatism — even though their production and publication were banned.
Then, in 1968, something remarkable happened: the “Prague Spring,” during which Alexander Dubček’s government lifted censorship and travel restrictions and granted freedom of speech, religion, and assembly. But not for long: Russian tanks moved in, and Dubček was handcuffed and shipped to Moscow, where he was interrogated, isolated, threatened, bullied, and humiliated. After he finally agreed to sign a document capitulating entirely to the Kremlin, he was allowed to fly back to Prague, where he sobbed his way through a radio speech announcing his capitulation. The Communists then proceeded to whip Czechoslovakia back into line by (among other things) purging most government ministers, top diplomats, and company officials; firing thousands of teachers, school principals, and professors; persecuting actors and artists; forcing almost half of the country’s journalists to resign and replacing everybody at the management level of news organizations; dismissing the great majority of writers from the Writers’ Union, imprisoning or exiling many of them, and removing books by scores of them (including Havel) from libraries. The lesson was clear: in the words of Havel biographer John Keane, the people of Czechoslovakia
were expected to join what Havel’s friend Ivan Klíma called the “community of the defeated,” and to abide by its basic rules: that there would only ever be one governing party, to which everything, including truth itself, belonged; that the world was divided into enemies and friends of the Party and, accordingly, that compliance with Party policies was rewarded, dissent penalized; and, finally, that the Party no longer required the complete devotion of its subjects, only the quiet acceptance of its dictates.
It is a mark of Havel’s character that when Czechoslovak officials, eager to be rid of him (one of the country’s leading troublemakers), actually offered to let him move to the West and take a dream job he had been offered with the New York Shakespeare Festival, Havel, who at the time was working in a brewery, refused. “The solution to this human situation,” he wrote, “does not lie in leaving it.”
Years passed. Organized dissent in Czechoslovakia disappeared. Then, in 1976, a rock group called the Plastic People of the Universe was arrested. The musicians were not dissidents, or even politically inclined; but in the eyes of the Communist leaders, their music was, in and of itself, subordinate. The group’s arrest underlined the fact that what was at issue in Communist Eastern Europe was not simply the right to political dissent — it was the right simply to be oneself, to spread one’s wings, to do one’s thing. The trial led Havel and others to found Charter 77, a group that called on the government to live up to its obligations under international human rights agreements. It was a new tactic: Czechoslovakia’s leaders, like the heads of other Communist countries, had entered into a number of such agreements, of which their very system of government was, of course, a violation; signing them was an act of pure cynicism on which no one had ever challenged them. At first the Plastics didn’t even know whether to align themselves with Charter 77; but they eventually decided to stand up for themselves — and with Havel. “In this trial,” Kriseová would later write, “the human desire to lead one’s life freely was in the dock. It was a trial in the name of sameness, indifference, bureaucratization, total obedience, and conformity. Anything that deviated from the norm in any way had to be liquidated.” Or, in Havel’s words: the trial was “an impassioned debate about the meaning of human existence, an urgent questioning of what one should expect from life, whether one should silently accept the world as it is presented to one and slip obediently into one’s pre-arranged place in it, or whether one has the strength to exercise free choice in the matter.”
Thank you for honoring an honorable man. Thank you for helping keep us aware of what words like honor and freedom really mean and what they are worth. Thank you also for your excellent book.
Thanks for this amazing lesson in recent history. I had no idea who Havel was, but now I will never forget him.
Thank you for the history lesson, I loved reading it. To Vaclav Havel, and all those who sacrificed (including those who sacrificed their lives and who’s stories will never be told in this lifetime), may we all give thanks by remembering and honoring their sacrifices lest we fail to learn from and repeat history (which of course we are living now). I can’t help but notice while reading this, that the absence of a belief system in a life after death with a moral code that supercedes the values of a people who only see life as “cradle to grave” and nothing more, makes those people as vulnerable to evil (in whatever form it takes, be it Islamist terrorism, Nazism, Communism, or whatever) as sheep being led to slaughter… which explains their constant efforts to purge Christ and Christianity from our lives… they know the power of good is stronger than evil, that’s their greatest fear… evil is a weak, but incessant enemy that thrives through never-ending insidious small victories in each individual’s life… and thus personal responsibility is the cure… without God, without faith, without liberation as defined in our Declaration of Independence that only comes from God and can never be taken from us… then of course fear of loss must fill the void, and evil rules… Victor Frankl, “Man’s Search for Meaning”, another must read along the same heroic line as this story of Vaclav Havel. Thank you again for sharing this article, it is a tremendous read.
Vaclav Havel is one of my heros. He found the truth and accepted nothing short of the truth. Socialism, communism, environmentalism and other ideologies that cannot accept the truth ultimately end in the ruin of humanity.
Many heartfelt thanks for teaching me more about this great hero.
I woul be grateful to anyone who translated The Power of the Powerless into Farsi and Arabic and posted it on the web.
As an American of Czech decent I couldn’t be more proud of the country where my family originated. The Velvet Revolution and their peaceful split into two countries are remarkable. Havel is truly a hero whose story should be taught in our schools. We also need to listen to the current Czech president’s warning about the global warming hoax. I grew up among the Czechs and know their wisdom and goodness. Thanks for a great article.
The Power of the Powerless should be translated not only into Farsi and Arabic but into SPANISH.
Decades ago, the Reader’s Digest published an abridged version of THE ROAD TO SERFDOM by Frierich Hayek in North America and in a Spanish version in South America. Very influential.
Want to defeat Chavez, Islamofascism and Adminjihad et al? Translate into Spanish, Farsi, and Arabic, Hindi and Mandarin Ayn Rand’s WE THE LIVING (life in Soviet Russia) THE FOUNTAINHEAD (man’s right to live for himself not the state (Russia) or the race (Nazism), ATLAS SHRUGGED (“evil” industrialists and entrepreneurs et al go on strike and society collapses).
The West’s lamestream media should be totally despised for their failure to investigate our Arab-American candidate (Dad was 87% Arab) half-brother and cousin (google Odinga Obama) to Kenyan terrorists, and more (PJ Media/Jun 4 , 5:25 am comment by Dean in column by Rick Moran on Mc-Cain Obama). Once again, they don’t vet a candidate until it’s too late: Clinton, Kerry, et al.
Worse yet, a timid academia and government bureaucracy abjectly kowtowto Islamofascistm especially in Minnesota and in British Columbia against Mark Steyn (read his most recent column).
It’s time for all of us to push back against the Islamofascists while rigorously defending lapsed Muslims and Lebanese Christians, even Sikhs (first to die after 9/11, killed by a knownothing moron) from the lethal fury of their Islamofascist tormenters, here and abroad.
Once in a while there emerges a person who exemplifies the true nature of Western civil society. Not a whole lot of them exist currently but Havel is one of them.
A man who has seen the face of evil, resisted it and created two new countries is a rare man indeed. It is refereshing to read this instead of the tripe we are forced to swallow in the name of political correctness and ideology.
Sorry to spoil the love fest party here, but folks should remember that while he was President, the greatest criminal looting of the Czech Republic occured, with countless investment funds being “tunneled” out by their fund managers and the savings of thousands of Czechs being lost. He sat around doing nothing and saying practically nothing while all this occured.
Up to a point, you are right but the damage has been much worse than some misappropriated billions (Quoth Havel: “dumb mood” in the nation). It would also be good to remind everyone it was the then Prime Minister, Mr Klaus, that enabled the massive looting. It goes without saying this is the same Mr Klaus who now is the Czech President.
There is no need for more Havels, really. The one and only was as good as he could be. He had his run, and history will be the judge in due course. I would have preferred a Pinochet instead. Both then and now.
Dyanmite piece. Thank you.
karl: Even if Havel was not a fantastic administrator, he fought for a government that is capable of self correction. How many millions have lived with corruption, poverty, and unbelievable environmental degradation because they could not raise their voices or cast a vote? And should we not remember that he oonfronted lung cancer during his term of office?
The “corruption probes” that followed, organized by him, uncovered many of the culprits & continues to this day to uncover & return funds to those who lost them.
The man is among those who freed his nation. Those who were part of the government who decided to steal, were typical bureaucrats. A system with way too many regulatory types & regulations, all designed to allow manipulation. Sounds like what many want for America.
Keep it simple. Keep it small. And allow the people to be free. Havel is a champion of humanity and freedom.
Havel is fantastic. A brilliant and eloquent man with courage and wisdom. Very rare indeed. Havel was re-elected for an excellent reason–the people liked what they saw and wanted to see more.
We live in a decadent age of Peter Pans and Cinderellas–psychological neotenates who will never grow up or take responsibility for preserving the freedoms they were given for nothing. These twits love Che, Fidel, Mahmoud, Hugo, and Karl.
Havel is magnificent.
But I have read this piece carefully, and I still have absolutely no idea what the connection with western attitudes toward “jihadists” is supposed to be. It feels completely tacked-on.
Comparing a totalitarian regime which focuses all power in a single state to a world-spanning religion of billions with many distinct sects and attitudes just doesn’t make any sense.
Who are these people “in the western world” who are getting bullied to give up their rights by Muslims and happily acquiescing to it?
Hey, that’s what you wrote:
“Today, in the Western world, if a group of Muslims starts bullying non-Muslims and seeking to limit their freedoms, most of the latter will not raise a peep in protest— instead, they’ll criticize those who resist.”
Yeah, those straw men are awful and they should step off and leave us brave defenders of freedom alone.
You also took a moment to point out that if we criticize our own country for moving in a more totalitarian direction, we’re trivializing what the victims of real totalitarianism go through. But apparently it’s fine for you to compare an entire religion— sunni and shiite, hundreds of millions of moderate Indonesians and, yes, conservative powderkegs like Iran— to a single monolithic totalitarian state. That comparison is A-OK and doesn’t stretch credibility at all because the point you’re making is too important to worry about things like that.
P.S. It looks like Havel himself sponsored an interfaith conference in 2004 where criticism of the “clash of civilizations” theory was put forward by moderate muslims. Doesn’t sound like he’d be in any rush to embrace your tortured analogy.
Some of the acquiesence Mr Bawer is talking about could be interpreted to refer to the mass of “moderate” Muslims whose almost complete silence in the face of murderous fanaticism carried out in the name of their religion could be seen as de facto approval. Or, as he points out, that silence could be the result of fear. To paraphrase a famous quote, “All that it takes for evil to flourish is for good men to do nothing.”
Terrific piece of history. This was a pleasure to read and will be long remembered by me.
I’ll be scolded for adding this to the comments, but the truth is, if Havel attained high office, he would be bad for the world. While he’s been a leader in the transition from the fake communism of Eastern Europe, he’s not a thoroughgoing friend of Liberty. Like most Europeans, he believes in a politically controlled world economy. He said this in 2004 (in, AFAIK, CMIIAW, an article in the journal The New Presence):
“The end of the bipolar world represented a great opportunity to make the international order more humane. Instead, we witness a process of economic globalization that has escaped political control and, as such, is causing economic havoc, as well as ecological devastation, in many parts of the world.”
This mindless babble sounds like something Naomi Klein would say — it’s sloganeering laced with willful ignorance. In fact, the world was never “bipolar,” there is no “international order” (nor should there be), and the more globalization comes under political control, the more likely it will be a disaster for the poor, who could be its biggest beneficiaries. Ecological devastation predates and is not caused by globalization, but by the corruption that is the ineradicable norm in the “developing” nations.
We don’t want people like Havel running governments. There are too many Utopian control freaks already. Give the man credit for the great good he has done; he played his role, and admirably. Now he should retire. It would be a blunder to give him the power to mess up free trade and economic development.
In case you missed it, he did retire. He died last Sunday.
The main idea here is that he led Czechoslovakia out of Communism. I and my husband visited the Czech Republic in 1994. Our friends there told us they were working their way out of the Communistic influence and everyone was much happier because they had freedom of choice. We went again in 1999 and affluence was much more apparent. We would like to return for a third time—that is, if Communism doesn’t overtake the USA preventing us from going.
Fake communism? Well, we now know that you are a leftist who still thinks you can make communism work, “if we only do it the right way”. Childish. Foolish. MINDLESS.
We need to face it, some people just WANT to be slaves. Freedom scares them. They can’t deal with responsibility.
Tom B: “Who are those in the West being bullied” I suggest you read Bawer’s book. For one thing, Muslims themselves who live in the West are being bullied. Girls in the bannlieu walking home from school were being threatened and even raped for not wearing a headscarf. They were not protected by the police and the bullies won the neighborhoods. The French have woken up to the problem. How far they have gotten in addressing it is something I can’t judge. And before you object, my information about the bannlieu was not from Bawer’s book. It was from German MSM. The whole point that Bawer is making is that we are too complacent about the values that give us the rights we enjoy.
Benson: In case you haven’t noticed, Havel has been replaced by Vaclav Klaus, who is one of the stronger voices warning against eco-totalitarianism. That both Vaclavs can put their ideas in the marketplace is due in part to Havel’s efforts. We are still debating the Jeffersonian and Hamiltonian views of the world, but we recognize their roles in giving us the right to debate.
Stunning anecdotes of personal courage; astonishing conclusions that undermine that courage. And both from the same person! Havel’s notion of sacrifice is old school, to be sure: liberty-or-death as noble sacrifice. It is, nonetheless, genuine sacrifice when expanded and re-applied to other things. Of course, much is the result of this writer’s interpretation and unquestioning worship of sacrifice.
To fight Islam we must…sacrifice. To fight disease, then, we must become ill.
I wonder how he would have felt about the necessity of a flag pin. Would he have bowed to Gessler’s hat?
Excellent post.
The story of heroes like Dubcek and Havel would make a wonderful movie, but I guess Hollywood is too busy making movies about McCarthyism to care about real oppression.
Thanks for this. Now I know why Noam Chomsky can’t stand this guy.
While visiting for a short time in Prague, I had an impression of some current generation citizens living in the Czech Republic. Many appeared to be living among the fabulous treasures of a preserved architectural cityscape, without the means to afford admission to a museum. Evident behavior of some showed apathy, if not obvious disrespect, for the ancient buildings created by the work of many, less free, before them. Jumping to mind is the non-caring to destructive behavioral range of some teenagers when left home alone by otherwise repressive parents. A few Czech citizens seem to be visibly struggling while growing into the responsibility of governing themselves in an environment that was inherited.
Havel is indeed an extraordinary person, and this article presents him admirably, but view its ending arguments skeptically. I was a student at Columbia Univesity during Havels stay, and the author distorts the Columbia studentry perception of Havel to illicit a false argument. A great number of students knew of Vaclav Havels accomplishments, and we were all clamouring to hear his lectures, speeches, and panel discussions. Getting tickets to hear his lectures and discussions were nearly impossible, too many students signed up for every one of his events, making it necessary for the school to allocate tickets on a lottery selection scheme. Despite popular opinion, not all college students are stereotypical stalinists planning a communist takeover of the government while we sit in our dorms underneath our Che Guevara posters listening to the Dixie Chicks croon over our itunes.
I second what Robert said above. Though I wasn’t at Columbia in 2006, I did see Havel speak at the Library of Congress around the same time, and there were dozens of young people in attendance–and dozens more who couldn’t get in. Though I do think Noam Chomsky makes a fair point from time, I also consider Vaclav Havel to be one of the singular people of the last 50 years.
I am Czech and I must react ,because all of this is totall lie ,havel was and he still is kryptocomunist euronazi colaborant who stealed property ( about 1 billion Czech Crowns) after socalled velvet revolution(which was only tool to save commies from justice) by socalled restitution of property which was confiscated after WWII because his family was band of nazi colaborants ,he served a and still serve as puppet of eurobolschevik neofeudal Bruxel,neocons promoting multicultralism,PC,criminophilia(“criminals are victims of society” ) puppet of zionists and islamofascist sheiks at the same time,promoting fascist concept of “hate crime”,enviromentalism and all that globalist fascist agenda he love. havel hates people as nobody else and he promoted teror and injustice as nobody else and he served nearly everybody who pays.You are right in one thing – there is no other person like him.
Wow, the most evil person; as Johnny Carson would say “I did not know that.”
Based purely upon your comments I believe that your last name is Jaruzelski.
Thank-you, Mr. Bawer, for that inspiring profile of Vaclav Havel. He is, indeed, both a true hero of our time and an inspiration.
I do have one serious concern, however, with respect to what I view as your (if not, Mr. Havel’s) misuse of the word “sacrifice”. To sacrifice is to give up a higher value for a lesser one or a non-value. Because it is an essential requirement of a human life, individual liberty is neither a non-value or a lesser one. Therefore, to defend it, to struggle for it and, indeed, to fight for it even to death cannot be a sacrifice properly understood.
Sorry, this is all laughable and totally wrong. . If you read Havel’s autobiography, “Disturbing the Peace,” (Alfred A. Knopf) you would know that Havel is just as distrustful and skeptical of western corporate monopoly capitalism as soviet-style communism.
The author is dishonestly trying to use Havel as a puppet for his own xenophobic, bigoted views — just as the Czech communists did.
You folks are as warped and ideologically blind as the 1960s Eastern Bloc politburos.
Since Walmart doesn’t imprison people or put them on Kafkaesque trials that puts you in Bugs Bunnyville minus the common sense of Bugs.
I read Power of the Powerless and found his examples to be very good, and easy to understand ideologies. The fact that he uses this title, shows he is comfortable with the commonly found hopelessness when getting people to behave and stand together in order to make others also be responible. He basically is teaching us to get a spine and showing us why we should put forth the collective effort. Any person paying attention to domestic abuse can tell you about ideologies just as the person suffering from addiction. You could also say Peter Kropotkin’s paper stating that all animals require cooperation in order to survive is more the right answer, as compared to Charles Darwin’s Survival of the Fittist. In the long run of evolution, it is the man who communicats with his neighbors and not take advantage, this man is far superior than the bully who will do anything to get what he wants despite how he adversly affects others.
Hurthermore, Peter comments on how nice it would be with out laws. That laws are not needed in a community who gas mtual aid. That if anyone was to act out, then the law would not be there to prevent any man from confronting the other who is behaving; that laws keep the victim from confronting his neighbor so he begins to act civil.
Buckminster Fuller was also a good man who was concerned about our childish behavior and always was thinking how to get us together to deal with this problem. He would invent the bridge linking two peoples who will not meet, mingle, share, and discuss while walking on this new bridge not by force, but by curiosity.
John denver was Mr Fuller’s best friend, and it is worth looking at John Denver’s story as well. He is famous in China and landed in a plane years later not knowing that everyone in China already had been listening tis music for decades.
Thank you for the wonderful article.
Do not worry for today’s students who know nothing: if they don’t want to learn from the study of the past they will have another occasion to learn…by repeating the mistakes and by going through the horrors of totalitarianism. Then they will discover the difference between propaganda (aka today’s schools) and truth.
We cannot force people to be free or to defend Freedom. We can just tell them.
And your article is beautiful.
When I think of illegal immigrants for years I have thought about my own version of the above quote “The solution to this human situation,” he wrote, “does not lie in leaving it.”
And also “…the painful realization that responsibility is the key to human identity.” The first is the one I most often invoke and ask my Christian friends in Egypt to think about while pointing out that running to the U.S. will solve nothing but they line up for visas anyway, leaving the job of dealing with a country that may go fanatic to others, like Iraq and Iran.
Did not one man in Iraq have the guts to shoot Hussein in all those years, some visionary who’d risk his own life to save thousands?
Im a great admirer of Vlacov Havel.
Unfortunately, the Leftwing professeriat in this country isnt, nor the Leftwing MSM, since his standing up to Global Warming Fascists and the EU.
Let’s hope the right people get to write history, and thus give him a place of special honor.
I got my Vlacav’s mixed up. My apologies.
As a Czech (living in London), I remember Havel visiting London University after being elected president and being open-handed with his autograph to all of us attending. As a son of exiles from Communism, I knew I could come home at last.
I’m not in the least negative about the Czechoslovakia – later, sadly, only the Czech Republic; I believe, as he did, that the union with Slovakia was good for both countries – that he helped to create. “Tunnelling” and other forms of business corruption were unfortunate, but pretty near inevitable in the aftermath to the total lack of accountability that Communism engendered. Today it’s a country of free media, outspokenly expressed opinions, an astonishing degree of common sense in private life, and a strong sense of history and continuity. Even dealing with the bureaucracy leaves a favourable impression: the people behind the counter do require you to fill in all the forms, get this one registered in one office, that one in another – but they realize that it’s a big nuisance, and seem to want to help.
They seem to have reverted to the ways of pre-Communist, indeed pre-WW2, Czechoslovakia, as my my parents remembered it. If Havel’s mark is seen in this, then he counts in my book with Tomáš Masaryk, our founding president, as modernity’s second truly great Czech.
as a person of slovak ancestory living in w pa don’t forget about the pittsburgh agreement.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pittsburgh_Agreement
Thank you for this wonderful tribute to Vaclav Havel, one of the truly great men of our lifetime.
I saw him speak on TV a number of times — giving warning about the Global Warming movement, Transnationalism and the EU’s coming totalitarianism. I thought he would continue to be with us for some time — his passing is a great loss to all of us.
You forgot to mention fighting their AttackWatch website. Oh…sorry…I’m getting ahead of myself!
Thank you for this excellent piece. It was educational and inspiring, if not also bitter sweet.
Fun op-ed. It brought back faded memories of seeing my counterparts on the other side of the fences 36 yrs ago. At just 19-20 yrs old and under the radar, we sometimes offered them beer. We thought it charitable, naive perhaps, but they were wide eyed kids likes us.
We figured they were as narrow minded as we were, focused on beer and girls. We had reasoned if the cold war was to end, it was up to us anyway (the young) not our leaders (the old). We understood giving beer away wouldn’t change anything, from the grand scheme or doing our jobs, but as long as we’re not shooting at each other, why not have a beer.
After all… What would you rather be doing? Drinking a beer or shooting at each other?
When given the choice, young guys get really thirsty.