
The Worthy House (Charles Haywood) Throw-Back Thursday: The Power of the Powerless (Václav Havel)
May 26, 2022
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How Small Acts Build A Totalitarian Panorama
- Havel frames totalitarian compliance through a grocer who posts a slogan to avoid trouble and belong.
- That act helps create and perpetuate a system where living within a lie is normal and self-reinforcing.
Why Small Truths Threaten The System
- Refusing the slogan is reclaiming dignity but invites social and economic punishment designed to exceed the act's immediate harm.
- Havel argues such punishments protect the system by making individual truth-telling a threat to totality.
Truth Versus Lie Is The Core Conflict
- Havel frames the struggle as truth versus lie, not primarily a power struggle.
- Living within the truth shifts resistance into pre-political, existential acts rather than direct grabs for power.
