Fascinating read. I was struck by this description:
> "The corruption and nepotism that plagued all spheres of life, the attempt to control intellectuals and the populace through a feudal system of privileges based on ideological subservience or personal connections – one where individual worth and talent had little to do with social advancement – created what was perhaps the regime’s gravest crime: the manufacture of mediocrity."
Sounds rather like various spheres of the American economy today, most notably the corporate media outlets, and perhaps in a certain fraction of the leading financial and academic and political institutions as well.
The more poignant, I think is the following observation:
>"Like Vaclav Havel’s famous depiction of a greengrocer who hangs a sign in his shop window proclaiming ‘Workers of the World Unite!’ for no other reason than to demonstrate his outward loyalty to the system, the Bulgarian leather workers – and everyone else, including writers – took care to affirm their Marxist credentials without investing in the underlying ideology. As Havel observed: ‘Individuals need not believe all these mystifications, but they must behave as though they did … They need not accept the lie. It is enough for them to have accepted their life with it and in it. For by this very fact, individuals confirm the system, fulfil the system, make the system, are the system."
That has some echoes in today's politics although the groups are different.
I’m not sure if posts like this fit HN but damn I love these recommendations. Random long form posts about something interesting that I’d never have known about otherwise. Best way possible to procrastinate!
collapse|4 years ago
photochemsyn|4 years ago
> "The corruption and nepotism that plagued all spheres of life, the attempt to control intellectuals and the populace through a feudal system of privileges based on ideological subservience or personal connections – one where individual worth and talent had little to do with social advancement – created what was perhaps the regime’s gravest crime: the manufacture of mediocrity."
Sounds rather like various spheres of the American economy today, most notably the corporate media outlets, and perhaps in a certain fraction of the leading financial and academic and political institutions as well.
mc32|4 years ago
>"Like Vaclav Havel’s famous depiction of a greengrocer who hangs a sign in his shop window proclaiming ‘Workers of the World Unite!’ for no other reason than to demonstrate his outward loyalty to the system, the Bulgarian leather workers – and everyone else, including writers – took care to affirm their Marxist credentials without investing in the underlying ideology. As Havel observed: ‘Individuals need not believe all these mystifications, but they must behave as though they did … They need not accept the lie. It is enough for them to have accepted their life with it and in it. For by this very fact, individuals confirm the system, fulfil the system, make the system, are the system."
That has some echoes in today's politics although the groups are different.
low_tech_love|4 years ago
mettamage|4 years ago
kevwil|4 years ago