It might be the greatest text ever written depicting the nature and fragility of late communist power: Václav Havel’s 1978 essay The Power of the Powerless.
The green grocer who puts the slogan “Workers of the world, unite!” on his shop window becomes a symbol not of socialist enthusiasm, but of the indignity of enforced consent - lives lived in lies.
Charles University Humanities Scholar and IWM Patočka Fellow Milan Hanyš discusses the relevance of ­Havel’s concepts of human existence, “­living in truth”, human dignity and individual rights to the contemporary political condition of the West.
Moderation by Ludger Hagedorn.
Speakers:
Milan Hanyš & Ludger Hagedorn
This discussion formed part of the Vienna Humanties Festival 2018, to find out more about the festival, visit TTTdebates.org at:
www.tttdebates.org/vienna-hum...