“I feel that the dormant goodwill in people needs to be stirred. People need to hear that it makes sense to behave decently or to help others, to place common interests above their own, to respect the elementary rules of human coexistence.”

― Václav Havel

Participation, Our Responsibility to Democracy and Humanity

by AM Pines

In academics, we tend to define politics as the study of power. In the summer of 2008, I learned from Václav Havel that politics is not just the study of power, but rather the study of the powerless.

I never heard of Václav Havel, the Czech President and playwright until that summer while I was studying and living abroad in Prague. Years have gone by, but I still take Havel’s words and philosophies to heart. It continues to give validity to my idealism and I believe Havel and Sanders share an important common ground.

Sanders and Havel are not replicas of each other, but they share some ideals relating to freedom, democracy, morals, and humanity. Most importantly to me, they both understand and believe in the role and the capacity of the powerless.

It seems we are at a fork between pragmatic endless compromise, where the “compromise” always seems to favor the powerful, or a shake up.

“The problems we face, did not come down from the heavens. They are made, they are made by bad human decisions, and good human decisions can change them.”

— Bernie Sanders

Healthcare is still unobtainable for many, students are still drowning in debt, our public schools and public goods are gutted, our environment destroyed before our very eyes, our worker protections dismantled, our prison industrial complex is obscene, and the list goes on and on. Basic humanity relies on charity, rather than as a right for all by the virtue of being a human.

“Vision is not enough, it must be combined with venture. It is not enough to stare up the steps, we must step up the stairs.”

― Václav Havel

Apathy is the easiest path. But if we are apathetic, we are also complicit in all those above crimes. Not participating does not absolve one of responsibility.

Havel’s political existence began during the oppressive totalitarian-communist era governments. In his writings, he detailed how all of us are responsible for operating the oppressive machinery–though of course, some, like the oligarchies, are much more responsible for it than others. We can certainly be victimized by the machine. The very same machine we help built that runs over us.

Like Bernie’s opponents, Havel’s adversaries considered him to be an “impractical idealist“. Havel saw the Velvet Revolution to the Velvet Divorce (the separation of Czechoslovakia into the Czech Republic and Slovakia) to NATO to leading the Czech Republic into the twenty-first century. Following such a massive regime change and cultural shift, it could have been easy to delve back into corruption, ruled by fear and distrust of humanity. But Havel and the Czech people did not allow that.

So what fork will we choose?

By no means is either man perfect. No candidate, no individual, nor you nor myself can claim to be the perfect candidate. But, what we are able to do is hold onto solid principles and what we are able to be is participants.

At the core of democracy and freedom is participation.

Tyranny of oligarchical structures and perverse diseases, like racism and fear, will continue to exist to the extent we permit. Every time we fail to vote or avoid the political process, we accept our position as a cog rolling with the status quo. Participation is our chance to spin the other way.

“Let us wage a moral and political war against the billionaires and corporate leaders, on Wall Street and elsewhere, whose policies and greed are destroying the middle class of America.” Bernie Sanders

Five years ago, Havel passed away, but in many hearts, his messages and inspiration continues forward in all the idealists, teachers, students, dreamers, artists, and all those who know a better world is possible and does not have to be relegated to childish daydream. I and so many other thousands of people know a better world is possible and not trying is frankly not an option anymore.

“Politics really should be ethics put into practice … this means taking a moral stand not for practical purposes, in the hope that it will bring political results, but as a matter of principle.”

― Václav Havel

Bernie Sanders stands on his principles and morals, regardless of the perceived political cost by the pragmatists. He stood at the podium and proclaimed socialist-democracy, owning the dreaded “s-word”, despite its usage synonymous with another phrase- political suicide.

The battle does not end at a caucus or a poll, but in challenging the pragmatics that say it cannot be done, every day. We cannot have single payer, proper parental leave, decent wages, great public education through college, and so on without every level of the machine demanding that direction. Democracy can work, we can make it work.

Though we may be seemingly powerless by the circumstances of society’s history, society’s stratification, our own anxieties, or perhaps our own past failings, we still retain a power. The powerless can wield power through participation in a democracy. Yes, we have rights like speech, but participation trumps them all.

Thus not just me, but we will be participating for Bernie Sanders, for ourselves, and more importantly, for each other come election season, starting this evening.

“This is the moment when something once more begins visibly to happen, something truly new and unique…something truly historical, in the sense that history again demands to be heard.”

― Václav Havel

-AM Pines

I write about education, fashion scams, skepticism, and more. Thanks for stopping by!