Playwright, poet and former President of the Czech Republic Vaclav Havel died this week at the age of 75. Brooke remembers his famous essay The Power of the Powerless and his notion of living "within the truth."
- brooke gladstone
- vaclav havel
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Comments [2]
Hi,
I'm so sorry to hear of Vaclav Havel's death at 75. From what I read above, the statement about the politician being humble and looking at the truth, should be a template for the future of the world; or at least those countries that can govern themselves in a free type of state.
It's people like Vaclav that, to me, set the standard of what we should be looking for, as far as leadership in the 21st century....
No, you don't have to be "an absurdist, idealist, rock n' roller" to "live within the truth" anymore than you have to be a grocer to "step out of living within the lie" of slogans such as "workers of the world unite" or "we are the 99 percent" or "this is what democracy looks like".
"A good politician should humbly look for the truth in this world without claiming to be its professional owner...without taking on an air of superiority and without imposing anything on his fellow humans".
Not exactly "..we are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America" is it?
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