The art of the impossible
Subtitle: politics as morality in practice : speeches and writings, 1990-1996
By: by Václav Havel ; translated from the Czech by Paul Wilson and others.
Edition: 1st ed.
Publisher: Knopf; Distributed by Random House
Published: 1997
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 273
Subjects: Political ethics; Citizenship -- Moral and ethical aspects; Post-communism; Truth; Responsibility; Civilization, Modern -- 1950-  -- Moral and ethical aspects; Czech Republic -- Politics and government -- Moral and ethical aspects
Description: There is no shortage of politicians who make a habit of shooting from the hip, but it is much rarer to find one who speaks from the heart. Vaclav Havel knows no other way to speak, or to write. Both as a dissident and as a playwright it was his sworn purpose for many years to combat evil with nothing but truth.

As president of Czechoslovakia, and now of the Czech Republic, he has clung to that habit, refusing to turn over either his conscience or his voice to political handlers and professional speech-writers. Instead he assumes the additional burden - for him, it is a distinct pleasure - of composing all of his oratory.

This volume consists of thirty-five of these essays, written between the years 1990 and 1996, that manage to be both profoundly personal and profoundly political. Havel writes of totalitarianism, its miseries and the nonetheless difficult emergence from it. He describes how his country and the other post-communist countries are learning democracy from scratch and are encountering obstacles from inside and out.

He marvels at the single technology-driven civilization that envelops the globe, and the challenges this presents to multicultural realities. And he reminds us that - contrary to all appearances - common sense, moderation, responsibility, good taste, feeling, instinct, and conscience are not alien to politics, but are the very key to its long-term success.
Notes: Many of the selections in this work were first published in the Czech Republic as part of Toward a civil society in 1994 and other selections were originally published in different forms in numerous magazines.
Includes index.