Let’s go back to the first day of our seminar! I have designed this, the final section of our class, to be personal. After all, all politics should be personal. I am particularly interested in how you, I, or any other citizen should “live within the truth.” Once again, I am challenging you to think about “truth” in all of its bountiful and uplifting manifestations. In particular, I am thinking especially of our obligations as citizens in a flourishing liberal democracy. More broadly, I am thinking about how we are obliged to act as members of a human community. The challenge begins right here at Notre Dame.
26.Tuesday, April 22
Vaclav Havel: The Power of the Powerless I
What does it mean to “live within a lie”? The first half of Havel’s magnificent essay focuses on what it meant to live in a lie under the sclerotic authoritarian regimes of late communism. In the last few chapters of the essay, Havel suggests that we may be “living within” our own system of lies in advanced democracies.
For this class session, we will concentrate on the first half of the essay and the three concluding chapters. This is not a course on communism. Thus, as you read the essay, I recommend that you engage in the mental exercise of replacing the concept “post-totalitarian” with the words “post-truth” or “post-liberal-democratic.” You’ll find that Havel is writing about issues that transcend particular political orders.
Vaclav Havel, “The Power of the Powerless.” This essay is in Open Letters. Read ONLY Parts I-VI, and XX-XXII
Havel’s essay is challenging. You will need to read it very carefully and more than once; I am still discovering new aspects of his argument. Many students have told me that this essay has had a profound impact on their thinking.
For this class, please do not focus on what Havel means by “living within the truth.” We will discuss that issue in our next class.
For an ironic, but interesting use of Havel’s argument to justify the rejection of measures to combat the Coronavirus, see Michael Rectenwald, “Living in the Age of COVID: “The Power of the Powerless” PRINT AND READ
What would Havel think of Rectenwald’s argument?
27. Thursday, April 24
Vaclav Havel: Power of the Powerless II
The second half of Havel’s essay challenges us to live within the truth. What does it mean to live within the Truth? Why is it difficult? Under what circumstances might we nevertheless be compelled to live within the Truth? This is a different question than asking about the desirability of living within the truth. It raises the question of what must happen in order for people to see no other option.
Vaclav Havel, “The Power of the Powerless,” Open Letters: Selected Writings, Parts VII-XXII.
Bret Stephens, “America’s most shameful vote ever at the UN” PRINT AND READ
Stephens is a conservative columnist for the New York Times
Is Bishop Budde’s homily, “A Service of Prayer for the Nation”? an example of living with in the Truth? PRINT AND READ
What happens to us as human beings when those around us don’t living within the (moral) truth”
Christina Caron, “What happens when your moral compass is compromised: READ AND PRINT
Remember my hand!
28. Tuesday, April 29 We try to tie everything up and save truth and democracy
In the beginning of our seminar, I used a courtroom phrase to ask you what it means to “tell the truth and nothing but the truth. But what does “telling the whole truth? mean? And why “nothing but”?
TRUTH AND LEADERSHIP
Mallory McMorrow (ND ‘2008), “We will not let hate win” WATCH AND TAKE NOTES
From a non-partisan perspective, what does leadership look like? How do you know if someone is fit to lead?
What’s your fellow Domer up to today? HERE
TRUTH AND THE RULE OF LAW
I have deliberately chosen this provocatively out-of-date op ed, Melissa Murray and Andrew Weismann, “The Supreme Court has already botched the Trump immunity case” PRINT AND READ
What do courts have to do with truth and democracy? What’s happening with our court system today?
TRUTH AND MORAL RESPONSIBILITY
Helen Lewis, “Finally, Someone Said it to Joe Rogan’s Face” PRINT AND READ
TRUTH AND POLITICS
John Jeremiah Sullivan, “What the Pope told me about politics” PRINT AND READ
TRUTH AND MORAL OBLIGATION
“The Pope sees the Pandemic as a Chance to ‘See’ the Poor” PRINT AND READ
What does the Pope mean by “to see” and what does this have to do with truth?
TRUTH AND HOPE
Vaclav Havel, “Never Hope against Hope” PRINT AND READ
Based upon his interesting experience, what would Havel like to say to Americans today?
Your Final Essay Assignment is HERE
Ecclesiastes 9:11 “I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to men of skill; but time and chance happen to them all.”
No one ever asks me why I include this passage at the end of my syllabi. Will you?