If playwright Václav Havel had tried to create a script for the uprising that toppled the communist regime in Czechoslovakia and swept him into the presidency, he could not have written a more prophetic document than The Power of the Powerless. In this book-length essay penned in 1979, Havel urges his fellow citizens to down-play strictly political activity in favor of a strategy he feels will be more successful: cultivating the sphere of truth within individuals in the hope that as this hidden sphere grows, it will becomes an irresistible force that will change society. In this approach, the core of Havel's political orientation is revealed.
While many people have written about various aspects of life in a communist society, few have written as clearly as Havel about what happens to the soul of man in a society where people learn to survive by sustaining and promoting a communist lie. He details what the lie is and how it is institutionalized.
While Havel has a profound ability to articulate abstract philosophical issues, he is able to bridge the abstract and the practical: In beautifully written sections about a grocer's choice to display a propaganda slogan in his window, he shows ho the lie is sustained, how it affects people's lives, and how fragile its baser is in reality. All this gives the reader a clear picture of the spiritual suffocation communism promotes. Again, in a most profound way, Havel explains how truth can win over the lie. He points out that every person at some point in his life chooses to "live for truth." In so doing, the person steps out of the communist system and is no longer bound by it.
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