Václav Havel (1936-2011) > Likes and Comments

In the opening pages of this book, Havel describes the reasons for the endurance of communist systems. Every morning, a shopkeeper places in his window a sign that reads: “Workers of the world, unite!” He does not believe it. No one believes it. And yet he displays the sign in order to avoid trouble, to signal conformity, to get by. Because every shopkeeper, on every street, does the same, the system persists.

The system does not rest on violence alone, but on the active participation of ordinary people in rituals that, in private, everyone knows to be false. Havel calls this condition “living within the lie.” The power of the system does not derive from its truth, but from the collective willingness to behave as if it were true. And its fragility comes from the same source.

When even a single person stops playing the part, when the shopkeeper removes the sign from the window, the illusion begins to crack.

Havel devoted his entire life to convincing the Czech people to remove that sign and bring the system down. In the Soviet world, and still in Russia today, the oppression of the regime produced a deep repulsion toward politics and a profound indifference to public life. What Russians called “being vnye” meant retreating into one’s inner world, extinguishing any interest in social participation or civic engagement. Havel had to fight, above all, against this escape from reality.

At the time of his death, Milan Kundera — despite having had more than one reason for friction with him — acknowledged that Havel’s life had been a work of art: “entirely constructed around a single great theme, a continuous gradation that gives the impression of a perfect compositional unity.”

This book may not be a great literary masterpiece, but it is the legacy of a great man — a monument to civic commitment in a world that seemed to have lost hope.

Perhaps the most unsettling aspect of Havel’s reflections is that very few people truly believed the slogans even then. The system endured because repeating them became easier than questioning them. The uncomfortable question is whether modern societies are really so different — and how many signs we still leave hanging in our own windows.

What fraction of the MAGA-folk are living within the lie? Is that the question we now should be asking ourselves?

Davide,

This comment is about your unauthorized creation of the present new subject-matter topic in this “Political Philosophy and Ethics” Goodreads group. Pursuant to Post 5 (September 24, 2016) of the Rules and Housekeeping topic, posters are not to create new subject-matter topics without my prior permission. I have already deleted your recent creation of other new topics for violation of this rule (see post 64, May 20, 2026, https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...) of the Rules and Housekeeping topic). Your post 1 in the present topic is, indeed, relevant to the “Totalitarianism, Authoritarianism vs. Rule of Law” topic (https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...). Please repost your comment in that topic; Brad can then post his follow-up comment there, if he wishes to do so. Then, delete the present topic and posts contained in it, unless you find that impossible as a result of Brad’s comment. However this may be, I, as Founding Moderator of this group, will delete the present topic and all posts in it within 48 hours (8:40 p.m. US Eastern time, May 26, 2026). Please be advised that if you again try to create a new subject-matter topic without advance authorization, I will, pursuant to the Rules and Housekeeping topic, delete both the additional new topic and remove you as a member of this group.

Alan E. Johnson
Founding Moderator of the Political Philosophy and Ethics Goodreads group
Independent Philosopher, Historian, Political Scientist, and Legal Scholar

Davide,

The Rules and Housekeeping topic does not require a moderator’s permission to create a new topic on an individual ethical or political philosopher (or, by extension, to a significant political leader). See the first paragraph of paragraph 5 (https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...) of that topic. Accordingly, if you wish, you could create a new topic as follows:

Václav Havel (1936-2011)


Alan

Change of Topic Name

As moderator, I cannot move posts by others into different topics. However, I can change the title of a topic. I have done so with the present topic, which was formerly titled “living within the lie.” Although I would normally delete a new subject-matter title that was unauthorized, I thought the content of Davide’s and Brad’s posts under the earlier “living within the lie” title was good, so I changed the title instead. Goodreads allows me to change the topic title, but it does not allow me to transfer the posts of others into previously existing topics or into new topics that I have created. I can either delete the post or change the name of the title. Since only Davide and Brad contributed substantive posts to the “living within the lie” topic, I figure that the name change will not be unacceptable to either of them. If, however, they wish to delete their above posts 1 and 2, they are free to do so.