Havel, Kafka and Us
Watching the video took me back to the day I first visited Prague and saw the castle where Havel’s body lies in state. I think of it as The Castle, Kafka’s Castle, and if you go up the big hill to Kafka’s house, which hangs over the side over the beautiful city, you may have the same reaction I did: it’s not at all the way I imagined it when I read Kafka. I imagined one of those British castles, a Robin Hoody sort of castle with a moat and a drawbridge and a single structure for the lord of the domain. But no. “The Castle” has lots of buildings, and it’s kind of baffling. Very Kafkaesque, so to speak. The church gives it a certain logic, but otherwise it’s hard to figure out where the center of power lies. Fortunately there’s a sign with an arrow pointing to the government offices.
Havel loved to write “absurdist” plays and poems. He was a true heir to Kafka. Like Kafka, he had an uncanny grasp of the dynamics and resulting horrors of bureaucracy. And, like Kafka, he was a Zionist.
Unlike Kafka, he found a political vocation, showing once again that you never know how it’s going to turn out.
He’ll be buried on the hill, as he should be. I rather hope he’ll be buried in jeans and a sweater, his favorite uniform. And in a way it’s proper that Obama not attend the funeral. He’d be totally out of place in the presence of a real leader, an anti-narcissist, a man of great substance and great faith, who warned that without a firm grasp of moral principles we are lost.
One by one the great men and women of the generation that survived Nazism and defeated Communism are passing away. The current crop are midgets compared to Havel and his contemporaries, and we can only hope that a new generation of worthy leaders is on the way. As he hoped. And showed the way.
Havel is and will remain a towering figure in the fight against tyranny and evil. I hope he rests in peace.
Michael, Prague Castle is actually not a castle – it is Pražský_hrad – City of Prague.
A brave decision maker,how refreshing,he would have seen right through nobama and worked to dislodge him. The communist and nazi parents certainly produced some beautiful children, forged in steel like an earthquake can make strangers a family. Hopefully we won*t be able to create such diamonds here.
CD53, won’t?? Couldn’t hardened steel arise from the slag heap of our overbearing, politically correct government? If it can’t, I fear our country will simply melt into a puddle of mushy feel-goodism with the government owning all the steel.
It saddens me greatly that Man’s fate for most of his history is one of tryanny, fear of his arbitrary government and its attending poverty.
More baffling is our inability to realize just how exceptional American liberty is in that same history and our tendency to embrace the same old tyranny.
Many of us long for a king like those nations around us, even if that king takes everything we hold dear and enslaves us.
It’s not like it hasn’t happened before:
1 Samuel 8:11-20 NKJV
And he said, This will be the behavior of the king who will reign over you: He will take your sons and appoint them for his own chariots and to be his horsemen, and some will run before his chariots. He will appoint captains over his thousands and captains over his fifties, will set some to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and some to make his weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. He will take your daughters to be perfumers, cooks, and bakers. And he will take the best of your fields, your vineyards, and your olive groves, and give them to his servants. He will take a tenth of your grain and your vintage, and give it to his officers and servants. And he will take your male servants, your female servants, your finest young men, and your donkeys, and put them to his work. He will take a tenth of your sheep. And you will be his servants. And you will cry out in that day because of your king whom you have chosen for yourselves, and the Lord will not hear you in that day. Nevertheless the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel; and they said, No, but we will have a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.
Very nice eulogy, and you’re right about Obama. Unfortunately the Clintons aren’t much better.
There are antiIslamic and anti Marxist fighters here too. Robert Spencer, Pamela Geller, Jamie Galzov, David Horowitz, Pamela Geller, Wafa Sultan, Ayaan hirsi Ali and so many more fighting for freedom, via the Internet, meetings, knowledge, blogs. And the more people that realise what is at stake – once they know, and are mobilised, then more people will stand up.
Jamie Glazov, I meant!.
Don’t forget Geert Wilders. Their are others, but keep him in mind.
S Bohem, Pane Prezidente. At’ se naucime neco od Vas i od vaseho zivota!
Havel spent his life fighting against communism and for freedom. Obama is fighting to take away our freedoms and to bring socialism/marxism to the US. That explains why he wouldn’t go.
True.
And a marxist subversive at the funerals of a giant of the fight against totalitarianism would be real poor taste.
He’s not a Marxist. He’s much worse. He’s a machine politician from Chicago and has proceeded to loot the country by giving special deals to cronies and his cronies’ companies.
I mean, it’s really not that confusing. Socialized Medicine = Marxism. Forcing people to buy health insurance from private companies = crony capitalism, or corporatism, really.
But hey, I guess because Romney and Newt are in favor of the same thing, it’s okay…
Napsal jste něco velmi krásného, Sutterbeane. Sbohem, pane prezidente.
Looks as though the Communist regime considered the bourgeois Havel to be a member of the 1%, no? thus properly to be scorned and abused.
A truly great man has passed on.
Where are the movies from Hollywood about this man? Where are the films about the decades of struggle of freedom against Communism? Instead of gripping, interesting shows about these real heroes, we get warmed over remakes.
One of the best things about him is he not only supported freedom under communism, but he continued to support it after communism fell, and he became the leader. Often good revolutionaries make lousy leaders, sometimes as bad as those they rebelled against. Just like Nelson Mandella, Vaclev Havel was a pleasant exception to that rule.
Not surprised Obama did not attend. Havel was a stern rebuke to Obamas socialist aspirations.
In his book “Summer meditations” he writes “that it is my responsibility to emphasise ,again and again, the moral origin of all genuine politics, to stress the significance of moral values and standards in all spheres of social life”. David Stern
yes, the central core of his greatness was that he knew that if morality did not undergird politics, all is lost.
Dear Michael, but NOT every a great should be resort to morality in politics. Politics itself immoral art…the ethical rules or the morality have NOTHING to do with politics…the major social virtues such as honesty and integrity are a major disadvantage and flaws in skilled politics, I think!?
yes, as Machiavelli said, leaders will sometimes have to enter into evil. but they should get out as quickly as possible.
Yes, yet, Machiavelli was considered one of the great political scientists and philosophers, and the greatest founder of modern political science.
Yes, indeed, sometimes the leader has to make some tough decisions. Sometimes they are terrible decisions. but they have to be made, because in the end they are in the service of people and their rights.
Michael,
Thank you for the moving tribute to a great and courageous man. Would that the United States had such a man running for president today.
Michael,
Thank you for this beautiful tribute to Vaclav Havel. You have inspired me to investigate his writing (and thanks David Stern for recommending one book by him).
I also enjoyed your reminiscences of Prague. You captured the feeling of the contrast of the different locals and enviroments: Prague Castle, Kafka’s old neighborhood, and the slightly seedy nightclubs. It’s a great city and the Czechs are a great people, both brave and ironic.
One should also mention the great work the Czechs did (and are still doing) with their small army in Iraq and Afghanistan. They are very competent and squared away soldiers and keep their weapons and vehicles extremely neat with a Mittleeuropisch fanaticism.
A great man who loved this country is dead and the world is less because of it. I was an admirer of his ever since I read his letter to the U.S. and then read some of his history. An extraordinary man.
“The leaders of the free world — not, however, the president of the United States, who is sending the Clintons to the funeral on Friday — will pay him homage,”
Of course, if Obama had gone, he would have been criticized by the right for leaving town while the payroll-tax cut extension was still an issue.
PS – Idiotic remarks like #9 calling Obama a “marxist subversive” just show how completely nuts the right has become. But who needs #9? — the GOP presidential candidates demonstrate this every day!
Let me see if I understand this. He doesn’t mind being criticized for his Hawaiian and golfing excursions while important matters of state demand his attention but he is now suddenly, through some epiphany, sensitive to such crticism? Why don’t we say it as it is? Mr. Obama will not attend the funeral of a man who was anti communist, believer in the free market, an avid supply sider, a fan of Reagan and a lover of the idea of American exceptionalism. He was everything that Mr. Obama hates. For that, I loved Havel when he was alive and will cherish and love the memory of his brilliant existence now that he has joined all other righteous men and women who came before him. I also think he is sharing heavenly jelly beans with a friend. Ther e you go again.
But you have to admit that obama, in his thinking and beliefs, is a total 180 degrees from Havel. Example: someone who wants total control over all (obama) vs. someone who believes in freedom for all (Havel).
And a tribute to a great man brushes up against the disgusting reality of Obama – our poor excuse for a leader would have dragged his entire family all the way to Africa for the funeral of Shaka Zulu – fortunately a time span saved us from that spectacle.
Thank you Michael Ledeen for your words about a wonderful man!
“And, like Kafka, he was a Zionist.”
Although it’s easy to speak in absolutes, it should be pointed out that Kafka’s relationship to Zionism remains a subject of debate. This from a friend of Kafka, as quoted in Wikipedia (which does a pretty good job of untangling the debate):
“Franz became a socialist, I became a Zionist in 1898. The synthesis of Zionism and socialism did not yet exist.”
Kafka was a member of a Zionist organization in Prague. I don’t see what’s so hard to understand…Wikipedia is not a very good source IMO.
Vaclav Havel was a moral philosopher of the first order, but no one could call him an armchair philosopher. Havel walked the walk. His definition of hope is the best I’ve ever read. Hope, he said, is not the expectation that things will turn out well or that a desired result will be achieved. Hope is the belief that some things are worth doing, regardless of how they turn out, simply because they are right. It makes me wonder if Havel would have been pleased by your using the occasion of his death to take ad hominem shots at your political opponents. Too bad you had to insert a bit of ugliness into an otherwise beautiful tribute.
thanks for the kind words. but i did not “take ad hominem shots” at anyone. i criticized my president for failing to go pay homage to this great man.
My sincerest apologies, Michael Ledeen. Reading your tribute again, and the comments that followed, I realized that the ugly remarks I referred to were sprinkled through some of the reader comments, not yours. I do think it’s sad, though, that whatever positive feelings they might have had for Vaclav Havel were quickly superseded by their need to vent their spleens about “lefties.” I think that dishonors the man you and I so admire, who, by the way, refused to identify with any “isms.”
thanks again, Morgan. much appreciated. Havel was a world-historical figure, I wouldn’t worry about unworthy comments on a blogpost, frankly…his name will be around for a long time, and we’ve got a lot to learn from him.
He was a giant of a man. His book “Disturbing the Peace” was always required reading for my course on political leadership. I’m so glad he got the funeral he deserved. Too bad he couldn’t have watched that video when he was in prison.
Thank you, Michael, for writing about a real leader, and revolutionary hero. The late Vaclav Havel was a man of virtue, was a great man of high class NOT such as those who whimsical with naive and unpolite behaviours, those who extend their legs to shake others instead of hands…those who never read a single book in their life.
The late Havel was a great man and intellectualist, was a great friend of the Jews and did much to confront anti-Semitism. He deserve all humanity honorary degrees..
In mid-2007, Havel hosted a conference in Prague titled “Democracy and Security” in support of Freedom and Democracy through support of dissidents from various countries around the world…the major organizer of the conference at that time was the giant of Zionist philanthropy and right-wing in USA and Israel, “Mr. Sheldon Adelson”.
History should NOT forget a Great man like “Mr. Adelson” and his great contributions in serving of Freedom, in serving of the Greatness of the USA and Israel.
Yes, the late Havel was an IMPORTANT east European player in destruction of communism!? But the MAJOR players were “President Regan and his great administration, including you, Dr. Michael Ledeen.” But unfortunately your enemies of wimps, the socialist “Mr. Obama and the rest of Accomplices to Evil” have forgotten all your great efforts in the destruction of evil Empire “the Soviet Union” and in bringing of Freedom sunshine into lives of millions and millions in Eastern Europe…itself the extension of the great influence of the benevolent America around the world. Today, the people of these countries live nearly the same standard of living and welfare in the West. I see the situation here in Poland. Despite all this, Mr. Obama and his complicit administration and the rest of the humiliating defeat makers from “Politicians, Journalists and Intellectuals” are struggling shamefully to discredit you.
IN FACT, DISCREDITING YOU, PER SE, IS A DISCREDITING OF REGAN’S ADMIN. HISTORY MUST BE FAIR WITH YOU!!! AND THE LATE HAVEL, WAS ONE OF YOU. MAY HIS SOUL REST IN PEACE.