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en:document:public:essay:vaclav-havel:1978:the-power-of-the-powerless
Václav Havel, The Power of the Powerless, transl. Paul Wilson, 1985.1)
Post-democracy
(“XXI”2))
Above all, any existential revolution should provide hope of a moral reconstitution of society, which means a radical renewal of the relationship of human beings to what I have called the “human order,” which no political order can replace. A new experience of being, a renewed rootedness in the universe, a newly grasped sense of higher responsibility, a newfound inner relationship to other people and to the human community—these factors clearly indicate the direction in which we must go.
And the political consequences? Most probably they could be reflected in the constitution of structures that will derive from this new spirit, from human factors rather than from a particular for malization of political relationships and guarantees. In other words, the issue is the rehabilitation of values like trust, openness, responsibility, solidarity, love. I believe in structures that are not aimed at the technical aspect of the execution of power, but at the significance of that execution in structures held together more by a commonly shared feeling of the importance of certain communities than by commonly shared expansionist ambitions directed outward. There can and must be structures that are open, dynamic, and small; beyond a certain point, human ties like personal trust and personal responsibility cannot work. There must be structures that in principle place no limits on the genesis of different structures. Any accumulation of power whatsoever (one of the characteristics of automatism) should be profoundly alien to it. They would be structures not in the sense of organizations or institutions, but like a community.
(…) These structures should naturally arise from below as a consequence of authentic social self-organization; they should derive vital energy from a living dialogue with the genuine needs from which they arise, and when these needs are gone, the structures should also disappear. The principles of their internal organization should be very diverse, with a minimum of external regulation. The decisive criterion of this self-constitution should be the structures actual significance, and not just a mere abstract norm.
(…) Having introduced the term “posttotalitarian” for the purposes of this discussion, perhaps I should refer to the notion I have just outlined—purely for the moment—as the prospects for a “postdemocratic” system.
Against human relationships
(“XXII”)
(The aim of those who threaten us, however, is precisely the opposite. Again and again, one is shocked by the energy they devote to contaminating, in various despicable ways, all the human relationships inside the threatened community.)
2)
Wikipedia.org: “Havel touches upon the concepts articulated by fellow dissident and Charter 77 signatory, Václav Benda, who had earlier described »parallel structures« of »parallel institutions« within a society more responsive to human needs. He points out that the first person in Czechoslovakia to formulate and put into practice a concept of a »second culture« was Ivan Martin Jirous; although Jirous was mainly referring to events such as rock music concerts. (…) He calls for an “existential revolution” that goes “significantly beyond the framework of classical parliamentary democracy” and that can thus be called post-democratic: “Having introduced the term 'posttotalitarian' for the purposes of this discussion, perhaps I should refer to the notion I have just outlined – purely for the moment – as the prospects for a 'post-democratic' system.”
en/document/public/essay/vaclav-havel/1978/the-power-of-the-powerless.txt · Last modified: 2025/03/16 16:49 by mbial
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