Pavel Bratinka: It will still take some time before people will demand more. Freedom from fear or repression is not enough, because people are not sure what they are free for. And they are not sure what the words mean, because they haven’t seen political vocabulary at work in their world. So some people do what they shouldn’t do but justify it by claiming freedom of speech. They try to steal the words for selfish uses. It takes moral courage, moral stamina and a sense of purpose to prevent this. All of these things are still missing.
This is an excerpt from an interview I read today of Pavel Bratinka. Not being much into politics, I really didn't know much about the Velvet Revolution, or the communist involvement of the Czech Republic. But this article really was a very interesting one for me, on recommendation by Dad.
Just pulling this one excerpt from the article causes me to reflect on a concept that is always in the back of my mind.... That there are some overarching "revolutions," we'll call them, whether they are happening on personal, social, political, or artistic levels... psychological, emotional, or intellectual levels... within any or all of those facets I sense there are things happening in the present that I could find involvement with, or figure out my best role in, if I could just jump out of time and look down on it all. Like having 20/20 hindsight, but without the hind. Sometimes if I think about this too much, it makes me a little bit frantic. The opportunities are right here in front of my eyes if I could just open them. But since I can't exactly do that, I have to trust that these things are there, and feel them with my other senses, things that really should be seen to understand. It can be done, but I think it takes a lot of patience, intelligence, and stamina. I'm not sure I'm explaining myself well.
Anyway, my problems are first world ones. I'm not trying to compare any of my going ons with what any victim of totalitarianism is/was dealing with. It just made me think about how hard it is to change or act when you have no imagination for what is possible.
Go read the article now. http://www.the-american-interest.com/article.cfm?piece=1169
Here we go, Day 147: https://ia600807.us.archive.org/9/items/Improv1812/1_8_125_43Pm.mp3
This is an excerpt from an interview I read today of Pavel Bratinka. Not being much into politics, I really didn't know much about the Velvet Revolution, or the communist involvement of the Czech Republic. But this article really was a very interesting one for me, on recommendation by Dad.
Just pulling this one excerpt from the article causes me to reflect on a concept that is always in the back of my mind.... That there are some overarching "revolutions," we'll call them, whether they are happening on personal, social, political, or artistic levels... psychological, emotional, or intellectual levels... within any or all of those facets I sense there are things happening in the present that I could find involvement with, or figure out my best role in, if I could just jump out of time and look down on it all. Like having 20/20 hindsight, but without the hind. Sometimes if I think about this too much, it makes me a little bit frantic. The opportunities are right here in front of my eyes if I could just open them. But since I can't exactly do that, I have to trust that these things are there, and feel them with my other senses, things that really should be seen to understand. It can be done, but I think it takes a lot of patience, intelligence, and stamina. I'm not sure I'm explaining myself well.
Anyway, my problems are first world ones. I'm not trying to compare any of my going ons with what any victim of totalitarianism is/was dealing with. It just made me think about how hard it is to change or act when you have no imagination for what is possible.
Go read the article now. http://www.the-american-interest.com/article.cfm?piece=1169
Here we go, Day 147: https://ia600807.us.archive.org/9/items/Improv1812/1_8_125_43Pm.mp3