Remembering First Czech President Václav Havel on the 13th Anniversary of His Death

This is the fourth part of the series I am doing on Czechoslovak 20th century history. If you wish to catch up, here are the first and second posts.

Here’s a brief summary:

• The first serves as an introduction to the motivation behind the thesis.
• The second touches on the first Czechoslovak president, Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, and his vision for Czechoslovak democracy.
• The third looks at the vision behind Czechoslovakia under the second Czechoslovak president, Edvard Beneš.

In this blog post, I analyze one of Václav Havel’s foundational principles for morality and society, namely “living in truth.”

Incidentally, today Czechs and Slovaks are commemorating the 13th anniversary of Havel’s passing. Havel, the first Czech president, after the dissolution of Czechoslovakia, passed away at his cottage in Hrádeček on December 18, 2011, at the age of 75.

So, here’s to his memory.

“When I look around the world today I feel strongly that contemporary politics needs a new impulse, one that would add a badly needed spiritual dimension.

Perhaps this impulse will come from some place other than the post-Communist countries. Yet it…