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Vaclav Havel and how to live inside and ultimately dismantle tyranny.
Vaclav Havel was uniquely suited to inspire a revolution. He was a playwright. All great artists are implicitly reformers or revolutionaries.
One way to deal with a civilization or society built on greed, hatred, violence and brutality is to NOT live in it. One can live largely in alternative structures, some built prior to the emergence of the regime and some we build ourselves in the shadow of it.
This may seem like a vague or weak idea, but it was a key component of a successful Czech resistance movement. And it’s something we need to understand today, at this very moment.
Let’s Not Watch In Horror. Let’s Start Our Own Programs.
What is it we fear in a brutal regime? Maybe some abstract things, like the end of the rule of law. But really, we fear genuinely terrible and real threats: violence, shortages, imprisonment, deportations, cruelty.
What’s the opposite of these things? WE need to build communities and programs of THAT.
Anyone can create or grow something beautiful. You don’t need authorization. Indeed, asking for official authorization is a mistake. You are alive. You can do things. WE can do things.
