Czech President Vaclav Havel on freedom and responsibility

[Fire Walk With Me]

"It would be very unreasonable to understand the sad legacy of the last forty years as something alien, which some distant relative bequeathed to us. On the contrary, we have to accept this legacy as a sin we committed against ourselves. If we accept it as such, we will understand that it is up to us all, and up to us alone to do something about it. We cannot blame the previous rulers for everything, not only because it would be untrue, but also because it would blunt the duty that each of us faces today: namely, the obligation to act independently, freely, reasonably and quickly. Let us not be mistaken: the best government in the world, the best parliament and the best president, cannot achieve much on their own. And it would be wrong to expect a general remedy from them alone. Freedom and democracy include participation and therefore responsibility from us all.

In the effort to rectify matters of common concern, we have something to lean on. The recent period - and in particular the last six weeks of our peaceful revolution - has shown the enormous human, moral and spiritual potential, and the civic culture that slumbered in our society under the enforced mask of apathy. Whenever someone categorically claimed that we were this or that, I always objected that society is a very mysterious creature and that it is unwise to trust only the face it presents to you. I am happy that I was not mistaken. Everywhere in the world people wonder where those meek, humiliated, skeptical and seemingly cynical citizens of Czechoslovakia found the marvelous strength to shake the totalitarian yoke from their shoulders in several weeks, and in a decent and peaceful way. And let us ask: Where did the young people who never knew another system get their desire for truth, their love of free thought, their political ideas, their civic courage and civic prudence? How did it happen that their parents -- the very generation that had been considered lost -- joined them? How is it that so many people immediately knew what to do and none needed any advice or instruction?"

http://old.hrad.cz/president/Havel/speeches/1990/0101_uk.html

[elleng]

1. 'The best government in the world,

the best parliament and the best president, cannot achieve much on their own. And it would be wrong to expect a general remedy from them alone. Freedom and democracy include participation and therefore responsibility from us all.'

[FirstLight]

3. i love Vaclav Havel!

One of kind among leaders for sure... lets send some additional rationale of this kind to the leaders with our wave of compassion and light...

[bigmonkey]

2. Absolutely wonderful words.

There's a strange coincidence in the speech for me. I'm about half a block from a statue dedicated to the first president of Czechoslovakia, Thomas Mazaryk, referred to by Havel in this article. I had almost no idea who Mazaryk was, and actually thought that he was a medieval Slavic hero. Turns out he was, instead, a former professor at the University of Chicago, and, according to this article, "was elected first president of the new nation in 1918 during a triumphal visit to the University of Chicago, where he had been a faculty member once before in 1902 and 1908." The statue, which is a quite impressive medieval knight on a horse, honors him. Evidently Mazaryk turned himself from a blacksmith into a professor of philosophy and statesman. The article is short and informative, and has some good photos.

I must admit I have an association of closed-mindedness with Christianity, despite (or perhaps because) of the fact that I was raised an Episcopalian. If I mentally take away some of that association, I do like Mazaryk's phrase "Jesus, not Caesar", since I now know it was associated with an actual, assumedly progressive (because Havel cites him), 20th century European head of state who, in Havel's words, "based his politics on morality." The plaque on the statue explicates that morality as "...the eternally valid ideas of freedom, democracy, and humanity." I'm glad that when I pass by the statue it will be easier to think positive thoughts now.

Of course, nowadays a U.S. government official who used the same phrase would give me the chills, because they would likely mean virtually the opposite. Context, context.

(edited to give the location of the quoted plaque)