On living not by lies
2020 has taught us through bitter experience that our societies are not vaccinated against totalitarianism, and certainly not the mutant strain of “soft totalitarianism” described in Rod Dreher’s Live Not…
Tag: Vaclav Havel
Our barren, deformed political society
And if and when Trump is no longer President, all the ills of political system can no longer be blamed on Trump. For four years now – in America but…
Free speech for public servants and Osip Mandelstam
During the week the High Court of Australia passed judgement on a case in which a public servant was sacked for an anonymous tweet, critical of government but made in…
On the virtue of not knowing (WordPress anniversary repost)
Today I am posting the last (for now) of my reposts from earlier, retired blogs. This post comes from 2010 and is a reflection on Vaclav Havel’s thought, then still…
Republics in distress
As I look around the world at the state of politics, I conclude that our democratic republics are in distress. This judgment is not a mere oppositional response to Donald…
Six asides about culture (and Havel, reblogged)
“Who among us can know what may seem today to be marginal graphomania might not one day appear to our descendants as the most substantial thing written in our time?…
Six asides about Vaclav Havel
I. Culture forms chaotically from spirit. Havel begins his essay, or talk, “Six asides about Culture” with some speculation that tomorrow he might write his best ever literary work, or…
