Vaclav Havel
We all know that funny feeling of filthiness of ickiness it's a feeling we call the prick of conscience.
When we make a compromise that we have doubts about so we think about it again and again
My bravery comes out of a cowardnes because I am afraid of feeling that ickiness that I have made an undesirable compromise that I have sidestepped. Conversely, when I have done something I know is right even have a feeling of euphoria
We all know that funny feeling of filthiness, of ickiness. It a feeling we call the prick of conscience when we make a compromise that we have doubts about. So we think about it again and again, and... we even worry about it somewhat, even though the compromise may have made life easier, compared to what would have happened had we not made it. But for myself...I see that my bravery comes out of cowardice, because I am afraid of feeling that ickiness of feeling that I've done something wrong, that I,ve made an undesirable compromise, that I've side-stepped and conversely when I do something that I know is right, I can even have a feeling of euphoria."
Vaclav Havel , on his birthday October 5
Here is Plato's Philosopher-King, a playwright whose stage is a nation; Vaclav Havel became a figure of the ideal human being and the unconquered spirit of man. His will to become, to defy tyrannical authority and hold fast to Truth, Justice, and Liberty regardless of the cost, to abandon not himself nor his people and together overcome repression and set themselves free; here is a song of revolutionary victory and the triumph of the human spirit to equal Victor Hugo's Les Miserables.
The Garden Party and other Plays collects many of his theatrical works; read also The Beggar's Opera and his final great play Leaving, based on Chekov's The Cherry Orchard and King Lear.
Read also his illuminating nonfiction ; his revolutionary essay The Power of the Powerless, the collected speeches in The Art of the Impossible: Politics as Morality in Practice, the interviews in Disturbing the Peace: A Conversation with Karel Hvížďala, and his wonderful absurdist-dadaist memior, To the Castle and Back : Reflections on My Strange Life as a Fairy-Tale Hero.
He wrote several wonderful forwards to important works; the foundational text, Economics of Good and Evil: The Quest for Economic Meaning from Gilgamesh to Wall Street by Tomáš Sedláček. Another forward, for the marvelous biography A Century of Wisdom: Lessons from the Life of Alice Herz-Sommer, the World's Oldest Living Holocaust Survivor , by Caroline Stoessinger. Again a Forward, to the revolutionary manual Small Acts of Resistance: How Courage, Tenacity, and Ingenuity Can Change the World, by Steve Crawshaw and John Jackson. And again, for No Enemies, No Hatred: Selected Essays and Poems, by Xiaobo Liu. There are more; committed to freedom for all humanity, his work has rippled out globally as an informing and motivating source.
Living in Truth: 22 Essays Published on the Occasion of the Award of the Erasmus Prize is a marvelous summation of his life work. And read Vaclav Havel: The Authorized Biography by Eda Kriseová.
