The Powerless, Post-Quietism, and Power
"Quietism" in America is Harmful to Our Health
Most don‘t recall the days of Soviet rule in Eastern Europe, but the poetry, essays, and letters of Václav Havel serve as guideposts to how the evils of totalitarianism can be overcome.
I undertook to translate many of Havel’s early poems as an MFA student at Vermont College of Fine Arts about ten years ago. It was an educational journey that heightened my understanding of Soviet propaganda as mass mind control carried out through fear and baseless sloganeering. It also taught me about the notion of “quietism.”
Today, I saw a New York Times sub-headline that stated, “With a compliant Congress and mostly quiet streets, the president’s opponents are turning to the judicial branch with a flurry of legal actions. But can the courts keep up?”
As a former practicing attorney, now a law school vice president, I’m skeptical the courts will keep up. Even if they do, I doubt this currently-sitting U.S. Supreme Court will uphold lower courts that lean anti-Trump in their rulings.
More to the point is the Times’ notion of “quiet streets.” This is highly disquieting for me based on my understanding of the then-hoped-for Soviet government’s notion of “quietism.” It was quietism that dissidents in pre-democratic Czechoslovakia railed against. It was “quietism” that drove a future Czech president named Václav Havel to lead, to use his voice, to write an essay titled “The Power of the Powerless” in 1978. He watched his friends and neighbors succumb to fear and quietism, accepting Soviet propaganda and its baseless sloganeering campaigns in silence.
What is “quietism?” In the political arena, it is the “calm acceptance of things as they are without attempts to resist or change them,” according to the Oxford Dictionary. Quietism across a nation allows the heavy hand of a monarch, head of state, or other form of autocratic rule to have free reign and assume complete control. A populace who fears the government and remains silent will remain constrained physically, economically, and psychologically. No country can withstand this type of rule for long because, as Havel suggested, people will lose respect for themselves when living the lie of silently accepting the government telling them how (and who) to be.
Havel further proposed that the oppressed have "within themselves the power to remedy their own powerlessness…" People "living in truth" in their daily life will readily differentiate themselves from officially mandated culture prescribed by the State. As Havel knew, power is only effective when citizens are willing to submit to it. When all people live in truth, when they refuse to regurgitate empty slogans and political propagandizing, biting sound bites, and hurtful memes, they refuse to allow lies to oppress them and others. This refusal to “live the lie” illuminates the truth and reveals to others that everyone has the power to take control of their lives and their country.
Make America Great Again? That rings as hollow as the Soviet-era slogan “Workers of the World, Unite” to be hung in Soviet-ruled Czechoslovakia as a poster in grocery stores. A greengrocer who failed to display the sign in their grocery store meant they were disloyal to the government. Yet, displaying it was akin to “living the lie,” in which the store owner became submissive to the ruling regime. In this case, the shop owner, the individual who puts up the sign in their store, is not being true to their beliefs and is, therefore, able to be easily ruled. The greengrocers submission to post the sign also extended the message to all shoppers who believed their greengrocer was loyal to the government—which was not true. Thus, the life of the lie grew. Havel saw a way to end this.
The Czech president believed that respect for self, for others, and for the universe was tantamount to “living in truth.” While accepting empty slogans like the “MAGA” slogan of today might have been exciting for some people for awhile, it’s a baseless piece of propaganda designed to confuse and perpetuate the lie that a self-proclaimed leader touts. His vision of leadership is now unfolding with dramatic consequences across America. As we can see, this leader is but a puppet of others who plan to disembowel the democratic institutional structures that have made America the greatest democracy the world has ever seen. Is there government bloat? Perhaps. But to systematically unwind whole government agencies with such lightning speed that our court system cannot keep pace is beyond incomprehensible. It risks a complete country collapse.
The “quiet streets” headline proclaimed by today’s Times article saddens me. It maddens me. And makes me want to shout to the heavens that Americans must now use their voices quickly to regain their power and prevent a newly-installed government from destroying a nation. The lie is exposed, and only in its continued exposure can America survive. Quietism in America is harmful to our health and the health of our nation.
Where are the leaders who can vocally live in truth? Look no farther than yourself, your neighbor, and your elected officials at the local level. Get out and give voice to truth. Get out from under an oppressive regime that is moving this country toward totalitarian rule. Get out from under the thumbs of a handful of billionaires who care little for the working-class American, or the hard-working immigrant whose dreams for a better life are as big as those of my grandparents.
The billionaire politicos are playing a board game with our lives and our paychecks. This is fun for them with little risk. It’s a game of Monopoly where they hold all the property cards at the start of the game. Or a game of Risk where they already own all the troops. The billionaires can withstand high gas, energy, and food prices, but most people cannot. They can make money in economic downturns, but most will suffer. The average American, including government workers now under threat of losing their jobs, has just $8,000 (median) in a savings account—not enough to survive a job loss and economic upheaval.
As the closing line of a poem of Havel’s I once translated implores:
“Dig in. Resist. Persist.”
I’ll add more words of my own to that: “Give voice. Speak out. Shout loud.”
Get out and live in truth, America. Move us into an era of post-quietism. Be powerless no more.
Dave Celone writes from Sharon, Vermont.