While on our side of the world, Afros, disco music and mirror balls made young people dream, on the other side of the Atlantic some only dreamed of the freedom of being able to say what they thought, sculpt what they felt and paint what was born from their imagination.
In 1977 a group of intellectuals from Czechoslovakia published their manifesto: “Charter 77”, a declaration condemning the violation of human rights in the former communist Czechoslovakia. The regime was commanded by Dr. Gustáv Husák, following the invasion of Czechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact troops in August 1968.
In this manifesto the people of the so-called “gray zone”, or people in the official structures, a courageous group of artists, scientists, journalists and civil servants who were against the regime but did not openly express their opposition because they feared losing their livelihood, expressed their dissent.
Twelve years later, and continuing his silent opposition, playwright Vaclav Havel created the Civic Forum, which cost him the banning of his plays, persecution and finally imprisonment.
“Havel challenged the traditional response of fighting power with power and proposed a radically different kind of action, which he called “The Power of the Powerless.” Knowing that traditional power was not a solution, but an extension of the problem, he wondered if there was another kind of power. It was thus that Havel realized that power was maintained thanks to the connivance of the less powerful, of those who were subdued following an automatism that perpetuated the power of those who dominated them” Peat, David. The 7 Laws of Chaos. Editorial Grijalbo. 1999. Page 51.
After the fall of the communist regime (December 1989) Vaclav led the new government and in January 1993 he became the first president of the new Czech Republic. In 1994 he was awarded the Medal of Freedom and in 1997 he received the Prince of Asturias Award for Communication and Humanities.
The Czech velvet revolution, led by an artist, lived from the soul by a people who, without shedding blood, fought with shouts of silence and wielded the weapons of impotence against the powerful, shows us that the subtle influence of conscience and thought are capable of producing great changes; just as the flutter of a butterfly can cause a tornado if it is accompanied by many other equally subtle actions in the same direction.
Although we are fortunate enough to live in countries that call themselves democratic, it seems that those who have power in their hands are corruption, inefficiency, clientelism, politicking, gagging bureaucracy, dishonesty, lack of principles and those who feed their fortunes on these practices. In the face of this power, we are often overcome by a desperate sense of impotence. The good news is that our honest, conscious, constructive, supportive and authentic actions do not fall into the void, but join with those of others, who like butterflies flap their wings to bring the expected tornado of humanitarian transformation that makes spiritual values grow on our aching planet.
