Václav Havel's Funeral: Why Truth Needs Love
What the rest of us can learn from a one-of-a-kind sendoff
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"We haven't had this feeling since 1989!" Živé kvety lead singer Lucie Piussi gushed to me backstage. She was right about the feeling, but I think under-generous about the timeline.
From the Velvet Revolution through at least 1991, and in many (though lesser) respects for years after, Prague was alive with rediscovery and experimentation in the exciting, difficult, anarchic interlude between Communism and its built-out replacement. Instigators from the former underground (those who didn't join Havel in his chaotic first two castle administrations) flooded into newly vacated spaces–like, say, the bizarre caverns underneath the podium where a 50-foot statue of Stalin once stood–and started temporary nightclubs, exhibit halls, pirate radio stations. The new actions inevitably brushed up against the old laws, and just when you thought the fun was over Havel would appear with a wink and a nod to let people know where his ever-present heart remained.
But more than mere nostalgia for a limited era of time (one I was fortunate enough to participate in), that same spirit of, well, love, or at least its handmaiden decency, has never really gone away. It's in evidence at the goofy but still-touching Lennon Wall near the Charles Bridge, where Czech teens since the 1980s have been spray-painting messages that stress above all the notion of love. It was around last week in the wee hours of pub conversations, when there was something close to national pride at the gossip that Havel to his last days was having hospital staff sneak him beer and cigarettes. And it was wafting through the air at spontaneous memorials all over the former Czechoslovakia. There is an important muscle memory of self-effacing decency among Czechs, and last week there was plenty of perhaps premature discussion that the funeral and related events would help re-insert these notions back into the debased national conversation.
It was Havel's conscious work to link together the various strains of Czech humanism, from Czechoslovakia founder Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, to 20th century philosopher Jan Patočka, to Magor, to (by extension) people like Jan Macháček, who before going onstage to sing his celebratory versions of Lou Reed songs gave me a complicated debriefing of the Czech/Polish impact on the Euro crisis. In this universe, it makes complete sense to mix a deep-seated appreciation of free speech, keen interest in far-flung human-rights abuses, literate debate over economic policy, fierce defense of personal freedom, and a well-cultivated taste for life lived interestingly. This will remain one of Havel's greatest legacies. May it become one of ours, too.
Matt Welch is Editor in Chief of Reason, and co-author of The Declaration of Independents: How Libertarian Politics Can Fix What's Wrong with America (PublicAffairs). See also his May 2003 Reason feature, "Velvet President."
Editor's Note: We invite comments and request that they be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of Reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment for any reason at any time.
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REason need more donations to pay for Welch's little junkets. Pony up, dimwits.
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Maybe you wouldn't be so jealous if your mom let you out of the basement from time to time.
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Da, tovarisch Sevo.
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Comments have been tossed into the abyss again
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They'll live on, so long as we remember them.
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The abyss is there for a reason.
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My iTunes random thingy played me Egon Bondy's Happy Hearts Club Banned a couple days ago. I had a sad, sort of.
People hoping for a Lou Reed appearance were disappointed
Not as much as they would have been if he showed up.
hiyo
But seriously he sucks—when he's around. Not fucking up Lou Reed songs at Havel's funeral is how he paid his respects.
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Even worse would have been if he'd brought Metallica along. Yeesh...
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Funny!
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Did someone die?
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OK dude, you have to admit that is pretty whack!
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Where are the PM links, god damn it?!?
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Aren't coming until 9 pm, right when you're about to go to bed.
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Amandine is a Parisian born Jewish girl. She teaches hip-hop dancing to teenagers at one of the many dancing institutes in Paris and also works as a show dancer. This caring and warm-hearted girl loves animals too.
Amandine openly admits to being an exhibitionist and loves to wear skimpy outfits that show off her toned, dancer’s body, both during her dancing classes and when she goes out clubbing in Paris. She is very comfortable with her body but this petite brunette wishes she was taller. Amandine's training as a dancer really shines through when she is being photographed or filmed. She literally performs a private dance for the camera, engaging the lens with her sensual movements and inviting eyes.
With her upbeat attitude towards life and her sweet smile, Amandine is great fun to be around!
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Woah. NSFW.
But genuinely arousing.
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When I finally met Vaclav Klaus, I really regretted all the nice things Reason had said about him, and that was before any scandals. Just because someone says the right things about markets does not make him a good person, or even a good economist.
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Not all Václavs are created equal, it appears.
It's too bad we couldn't do better than to send the SoS and an ex-president. Havel deserved much more.
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We paid him the compliment of not sending Biden.
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I thought the same thing too, but it's actually pretty damned rare for a POTUS to attend state funerals, and Havel had a particularly warm personal relationship with each of the members of the American delegation.
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Can you hang around a while so things can go back to whatever normal is around here?
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Virginia Postrel|12.27.11 @ 8:43PM|#
"When I finally met Vaclav Klaus, I really regretted all the nice things Reason had said about him, and that was before any scandals. Just because someone says the right things about markets does not make him a good person, or even a good economist."Care to enlarge on this?
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Think it might have something to do with this: http://www.dynamist.com/weblog.....01832.html
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@ Matt Welch:
So you spent what, 5+ years in the Czech Rep. doing the newspaper?
Is there somewhere where you have documented that experience so I can get more info? It sounds quite adventurous and interesting.
If not: What was the genesis of that idea? Of all the countries to go to after the end of the USSR, why go to the Czech Rep., of all places?
I was born in '87, so it's impossible for me to truly understand the Zeitgeist of '91.
Do you have a family connection? Can you speak Czech fluently enough? Is that how you met your French wife? I've lived/studied in Germany where my German was just good enough to get by (although even the homeless are fluent English speakers, so it's no biggie), and I've lived in (and will soon live again in) Korea, where I have an almost absurdly limited vocabulary. I'm always curious of others' experiences living in places absurdly different than their homelands.
Could you please help a fellow ex-ex-pat out?
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@ Matt Welch:
So you spent what, 5+ years in the Czech Rep. doing the newspaper?
Is there somewhere where you have documented that experience so I can get more info? It sounds quite adventurous and interesting.
If not: What was the genesis of that idea? Of all the countries to go to after the end of the USSR, why go to the Czech Rep., of all places?
I was born in '87, so it's impossible for me to truly understand the Zeitgeist of '91.
Do you have a family connection? Can you speak Czech fluently enough? Is that how you met your French wife? I've lived/studied in Germany where my German was just good enough to get by (although even the homeless are fluent English speakers, so it's no biggie), and I've lived in (and will soon live again in) Korea, where I have an almost absurdly limited vocabulary. I'm always curious of others' experiences living in places absurdly different than their homelands.
Could you please help a fellow ex-ex-pat out?
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August 1990--July 1995, with a year in there ('93) spent mostly in Bratislava. Paper ran from 3/91-3/95. There's a limited amount of stuff up at http://mattwelch.com/prognosis.html.
Genesis was my life was going nowhere (college dropout, recession, newspaper doom), my work contract was running out in June '90 (when I would have been graduating), so I decided I would Figure Out My Future during the holiday break in 1989. Which was a particularly choice time to be watching CNN. Was not a complicated or profound decision. Czechs had the best revolution, the best city, the best (and cheapest!) beer.
No family connections, pretty miserable street-language skills. Fun fun fun, mixed with pain.
Good luck!
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@ Matt Welch:
So you spent what, 5+ years in the Czech Rep. doing the newspaper?
Is there somewhere where you have documented that experience so I can get more info? It sounds quite adventurous and interesting.
If not: What was the genesis of that idea? Of all the countries to go to after the end of the USSR, why go to the Czech Rep., of all places?
I was born in '87, so it's impossible for me to truly understand the Zeitgeist of '91.
Do you have a family connection? Can you speak Czech fluently enough? Is that how you met your French wife? I've lived/studied in Germany where my German was just good enough to get by (although even the homeless are fluent English speakers, so it's no biggie), and I've lived in (and will soon live again in) Korea, where I have an almost absurdly limited vocabulary. I'm always curious of others' experiences living in places absurdly different than their homelands.
Could you please help a fellow ex-ex-pat out?
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THE SQUIRRELS ARE EMPHATIC!
This is all Postrel's fault!!!!#@!@$~
DRIIIIII!!!!!NK!
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I love that the human urge to be free is so powerful that it's impossible to control, and no attempt should be made. And people will choose anything, almost out of spite, to rebel against if they think they're being suppressed. Art, rock & roll, politics, anything.
All because of my favorite impulse, which I have named: "Because Fuck You, That's Why."
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NO