Moc bezmocných: Some Thoughts from Afar. Issue 2 (May 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Scruton, Roger
• Other Names: Krapfl James guest-editor.; Falk Barbara J. guest-editor.
• Is Part Of: East European politics and societies. Volume 32:Issue 2(2018)
• Page Start: 239
• Page End: 243
• Publication Date: 2018-05
• Subjects: Czechoslovakia -- underground culture -- Power of the Powerless -- consumer society; Europe, Eastern -- Politics and government -- 1945-1989 -- Periodicals; Europe, Eastern -- Politics and government -- 1989- -- Periodicals; Europe, Eastern -- Social conditions -- Periodicals; 947.0005
• DOI: 10.1177/0888325418755300
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0888-3254

Abstract

Havel's essay The Power of the Powerless described a unique situation in post-war Europe, when the Communist system of power was exhausted and those deprived of power under it were beginning to know each other and cooperate with each other in a new kind of underground. I describe the spiritual condition of a certain kind of young person in this underground, eager to find another cultural identity than the one offered by the official ideology and anxious to "live in truth." I suggest that the sudden collapse of Communism and the advent of a new consumer society left those young people in a certain measure bereft.