The Conspiracy of Readers--In Memory of Vaclav Havel

This weekend Vaclav Havel died at the age of 75. His death brought back fond memories of his glorious triumph as the leader of the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia. A few years later he received the Freedom Award from Freedom House in an upper eastside townhouse. After dining with Woody Allen, Vaclav showed up to receive the award with Milos Foreman, the great film director and cinematographer in toe. Asked what he did the first thing he became the first President of a democratic Czecholovkia, he answered that he had his cabinet in the room and had the doors closed and then he told everybody,"Let's laugh!"

Havel felt it was utterly preposterous when he heard the Civic Forum put his name forth as President. It was even more preposterous when the new parliament first elected him unanimously. Later Havel would win a popular election.

If you hear democracy groups speak about the civil society these days, it is a legacy of Vaclav Havel and the Czech Velvet Revolution. British author John Keane first used the notion of the civil society to rejuvenate British labor politics but soon found his idol in Vaclav Havel, whom he projected more hopes on than Americans did on Barack Obama. Later Keane would become disillusioned with Havel because Havel turned out to be a democratic politician and not the leader of an international movement Keane wanted.

But Havel probably tricked Keane after all because once Havel left the Castle he continued to be outspoken on democracy and human rights around the world. In fact, as if to return the favor, he supported some programs of his old supporters in the United States when we embarked on other projects in countries far afield from Central Europe.

Recently a young German doctoral student interviewed me about the American role in fostering the democratic revolutions in Eastern Europe. I had to disabuse her of the notion that this was a great triumph of American government policy. Some of us supported these revolutions because we came from backgrounds as freelance writers and great readers. People like Vaclav Havel were already considered great, even before writing Charter 77, for his literary works--his plays and his brilliant essays-- and he was lionized in the West by people like Tom Stoppard.

The Czech experience blended with the hipper moments of the counter culture in the United States. The Czech so-called Democracy movement had roots in the rise of jazz and rock clubs in the Czech Republic, the only space where citizens could go to be free. The crackdown on the rock group The Plastic People of the Universe sparked the larger struggle against the regime. None of this Washington understood or could ever understand. But this is the stuff which we found so appealing. Also it was cool that the Velvet revolution took its name from Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground.

There was another aspect of this struggle that people looking back don't realize. None of the Americans--whether right, left or center (mostly left and center)--would dare think of telling any of these people what to do. The idea didn't cross anyone's mind. These were people we looked up to as talents, not just democratic fighters. We were envious of their literary and philosophical imaginations. And we were supremely confident that they knew what they were doing, even if afterwards they admitted they hadn't.

Havel's essay on Living in The Lie applied to our lives, just as much as it did to people living under Communism. This attitude of listening to those struggling in repressive regimes has been lost. Instead today's democracy practitioner reads his "lessons learned" and tells people who have endured so much more than him or her what they should do to become free. It's quite wonderful what you can learn from talking to someone like those Czechs who were struggling to be free. And besides they were often better read than you.

I had the unique privilege of working with people like a young Chris Kean who came to Freedom House from his time as the media outreach person for the Civic Forum and young Czech Jiri Pehe, who would later leave us to become a personal adviser to Vaclav Havel. Jiri was interviewed today on Radio Free Europe about his memories of Vaclav Havel.

Everyone who quietly supported the Velvet revolution in the United States did so without any official prompting. In fact, I don't know of anyone on my Freedom House Board who knew, except for the civil rights leader Bayard Rustin, and he wouldn't tell. He thought it was terrific that a younger generation had their own heroes who were struggling for freedom. We actually thought it funny when Secretary of State James Baker bullied Vaclav Havel not to appoint Frank Zappa as his adviser since Havel had always revered the worldview of the great musician. Yes, can we finally admit Frank Zappa was a great musician, even if he warned everyone "Not to Eat The Yellow Snow". The United States government was clueless about whom they were dealing with. Baker even threatened to cut aid if Havel persevered with Zappa.

But looking back at the revolutions in Central Europe, those of us who supported them with the odds and ends of materials or writing the odd piece in support in the United States, the tremendous goodwill they generated was because of the good humor,literacy and general elan all the younger supporters demonstrated. It is amazing to consider that by the end Czechoslovakia, once the locale of the Prague Spring in 1968, was the most Stalinist of Central Europe. That a diffident playwright, who was made to work as a stoker and a janitor, should emerge as President was something out of a Charlie Chaplin movie. And more amazing still that his voice would be heard by all the world in defense of freedom for all.

I remember Vaclav Havel's quiet, and wise style. Slovakia was causing him and his aides troubles at the beginning. The younger aides were frantic about how to deal with these troublemakers. An American Alpha Male politician would have initiated a showdown, even threaten force. But Havel knew the stakes for his young fragile democracy were too high to prolong this trouble. Instead, he just let them go. And peacefully Slovakia was born with alot of anxiety among his American friends about its fate and its impact on the Czech Republic.

There are very few times in politics when you can say something is beautiful. Democratization is messy and clumsy and people you support often embarrass themselves and yourself. But in my mind the Velvet Revolution was a thing of beauty. The talent involved in its success and the creaton of a democratic Czech Republic was inspiring. The nearest we have come since is the campaign of President Barack Obama in the United States. These are rare moments to savour.

In summing up our interview, I told the German doctroal student that there were many people involved in assisting the Central European revolutions but when you boiled it all down, it was "A Conspiracy of Readers".