In 1968, with the “Prague Spring”, the “New Wave” was born; cultural life flourished, and previously unimaginable films, books and plays appeared.
This experience was crushed by the tanks that rolled in in the summer of that year. A vindictive backlash targeted intellectuals, and they migrated abroad in droves. The young playwright Vaclav Havel was among those betting on greater freedoms for the country and its people, but also for his stifled theatrical works.
Ten years later, Havel was working in a brewery. Banned from working in theater, he wrote a famous essay (80 pages) that mostly focused on the political state of affairs in Czechoslovakia, but also that of other countries. "The Power of The Powerless" led to his imprisonment, but after another ten years went by, it was among the reasons he became president.
Havel starts off by pondering the extent of power that society can attain under a regime like the one that had been in place. As someone deprived of defending his rights, he unpacked the concept of power: What does opposing such a system mean exactly? What actions does it imply? What role does it play in society, and what does it base that on? His questions led him to the conclusion that those powerless must examine the nature of the power under which they are operating.
Moving on to definition, he argues that the term “dictatorship” might obscure more than it clarifies, advocating the label “post-totalitarian” for the Czechoslovak regime. This term does not deny its totalitarianism, but it underlines Havel’s deep distinction between classical dictatorships and totalitarian regimes as we understand them. The Czechoslovak regime contained a vast and dense network of government tools legitimized by an overarching ideology of “secularized religion.”
In subjugating citizens to servitude, this network gives rise to repression and fear, but it engenders self-censorship as well. Silence is thus imposed on the population at a minimum, but other things could be imposed as well. To elucidate his point, the author presents the example of a grocer who plasters the slogan “Workers of the world, unite” on his shopfront. What does the grocer hope to achieve from this? Is he genuinely keen on seeing the workers of the world unite? Havel replies that most grocers don’t put up the slogans they stick on their storefronts to express their opinions. Rather, the meaning never crosses in the first place. They plaster them simply because that is what they do, because that is what everyone has been doing for years. This is how things work and how life goes on without trouble and accusations.
In fact, Havel did not make a substantial contribution to our understanding of totalitarianism. However, he did say something new with regard to civil society and moral responsibility, both in its private and public aspects.
If the regime lives in a lie, forcing citizens to live in it as well, then living in truth threatens it, as this is the most robust opposition one can put up to a regime that prohibits politics.
By this, Havel means expressing oneself and behaving freely, leading a life in which people ethically seek to improve their conditions while their actions in the public sphere go beyond politics to reach “pre-political actions.”
Moreover, “living in truth” under a regime of lies means being a good person - showing respect, kindness and care to others. This kind of talk might seem like preaching the gospel, or like it is inconsequential. However, its significance stems from the importance of building, within the existing social relations, the new nuclei of a new society. That is why one should always choose to do the right thing, align actions with words, and strive to do their best professionally. To be good at your job is to challenge the authorities, as you thereby affirm the power you wield within a structure that prevents you from asserting it. If political action surely has an impact, then coupling it with pre-political actions fostered by parallel structures only reinforces and fortifies it.
The fact is that an independent and honest life soon finds its own structures, or becomes a parallel structure in itself - one that is occupied by those who live in truth and search for common goals. To this end, when faced with a union that has no influence, another parallel union must be established. The same is true of the media, local administrations, and some economic activity.
With time, these parallel structures inevitably merge to form a bottom-up parallel polis. In the end, it forces the authorities to engage with it under one circumstance or another. Here, it might be useful to remember that Havel’s article was published two years before the establishment of the Polish workers’ “Solidarity” Movement, which would manage to force negotiations and a transfer of power on the authorities ten years later.
In all of this, Havel spoke for the lofty aspirations of his people, emphasizing responsibility, respect for the truth, and the conviction that free individual action makes freedom for all more likely, pushing his compatriots to embrace these values and internalize them.
However, making the choice to live in truth did not come without hardship. The first of these hardships is that what starts off performing one’s job well and respect for professional ethics could end with accusations of hostility to the regime and society. Nonetheless, the citizen has to choose: Will he continue to live a lie, or will he live in the truth despite all the sacrifices that come with it? Opting for the second option means that power lies with the citizens deprived of power!
