Quote of the Day

Havel argues here that, in fact, cultivating an individual “sphere of truth” will ultimately destroy the totalitarian communist government. Using a simple metaphor, a grocer’s placing a “Worker’s of the World Unite” poster in his window, Havel explains how that “lie” (and similar simple acts) form both the foundation of yet ultimate weakness in his country’s communist government. The spiritual suffocation under communism is promoted by these simple, everyday acts of acquiescence. If individuals cease to participate in these lies, they are no longer bound by the communist lies and therefore, create a zone of freedom untouchable by the regime. From such “spheres of truth,” a groundswell of freedom will sweep away communist rule. Havel’s ability to create and share such powerful images through such simple (and sustained) metaphors provided the groups working against the Czechoslovakian communist rule with a powerful intellectual and moral center.

—Introduction to “The Power of the Powerless: Citizens Against the State in Central-Eastern Europe.”