In this episode I speak with Flagg Taylor about the Czech playwright, dissident, and political figure Vaclav Havel. We discuss his idea of dissent as living in truth. For Havel, dissent is not primarily a political act, but an existential one—it is a dissent from ideology, from the politicization of life, from false narratives, political fashion, and consumerism.
We discuss a number of his essays, including a letter to Dr. Husack, his very famous essay, Power of the Powerless, Stories and Totalitarianism, and we talk about some of his plays including The Audience. We also discuss Havel’s life and some key events like Charter 77, and his shift from a writer to a political figure.
Though many of his plays and essays were written in the 1970s and 80s under Czechoslovakian communism, I think they are very relevant to our time. Havel stresses the importance of self-awareness and how to avoid thinking only in ideological categories that we see all over the left and right. We discuss the idea of dissent and theatre and culture, and how dissent is sometimes as simple as sitting down with one’s family and reading together, playing music together, doing theatre, and so on. The family of Vaclav Benda did just this—part of their dissent from communist rule was Mrs. Benda simply reading the Lord of the Rings to their 6 children each night.
We also talk about the difference between state planned events and authentic liturgical worship and compare Havel’s insights with Joseph Pieper and his books In Tune With the World: A Theory of Festivity and Only the Lover Sings
Biography
Flagg Taylor is an associate professor of political science at Skidmore College and the editor, most recently, of The Long Night of the Watchman: Essays by Václav Benda, 1977–1989. You can follow him on Twitter
Resources
See Links to Books Below
Flagg Taylor on Havel’s play The Memorandum — John Miller’s Great Books Podcast
Vaclav Havel Library Foundation
I highly recommend this short essay by C.S. Lewis: C.S. Lewis on the Inner Ring
Commerce and Culture
MMM Essay on Capitalism and Culture Essay
Consumerism as economic manifestation of spiritual problem
Peter Berger on Capitalism
Chris Arnade on non-credentialed forms of meaning.
Chris Arnade on The Moral Imagination Podcast
Dissent— See Vaclav Benda book below and on Liturgy, Dissent, and the State see Havel and the Pieper Books below
Open Letters: Selected Writings, 1965-1990
By Havel, Vaclav
The Garden Party: and Other Plays (Havel, Vaclav)
By Havel, Vaclav
The Long Night of the Watchman: Essays by Vaclav Benda, 1977-1989
St. Augustines Press
Only the Lover Sings: Art and Contemplation
By Josef Pieper
Ep. 23: Flagg Taylor Ph.D: Living in Truth: Vaclav Havel on Existential Dissent & the Re-discovery of Conscience