Post‑1968 Eastern Europe: Derrida, Marxism’s End, Havel Truth

The lecture transitions from the complex philosophical ideas of Derrida to a more accessible, yet intellectually dense, exploration of post-1968 Eastern European thought, particularly in Poland and Czechoslovakia. The focus shifts from a vertical progression through time to a horizontal comparison of responses to the "death of Marxism" and grand narratives.

Derrida and the Critique of Stable Meaning

Derrida's work, emerging from structuralism, critiques the notion of stable concepts and meaning. He challenges the obsession with fixed meaning, suggesting that instability might foster creativity and freedom. For Derrida, linear temporality, teleology, closed systems, autonomous subjects, and transcendental egos are fictions that require problematization. Deconstruction, in his view, is a political act that dismantles ideologies, serving as an antidote to totalitarian thinking found in both radical right and left ideologies like Nazism and Stalinism.

However, this deconstructive approach led to questions about the existence of truth, certainty, and reality. If reality is merely a discursive construct, constantly at play, what can ideas be based on? René Girard, while part of the same intellectual conversation, rejected this, insisting on an "extra-discursive reality" and the existence of a "real victim" behind the text, pushing back against a postmodern skepticism towards all truth claims.

British critic Terry Eagleton sarcastically critiques deconstructionist dogma, stating that it allows one to dismiss others' beliefs without having to adopt any oneself, an "invulnerable position" that is "purely empty." He further quipped that if Saussure, the founder of structuralism, had foreseen the implications of his work, he might have stuck to Sanskrit grammar.

The central question arising from this philosophical landscape, particularly in the context of Eastern Europe, is the fate of responsibility when history, linear time, teleology, the self, and stable structures are rejected.

The Polish October and the Disillusionment with Marxism

In 1966, the same year as Derrida's "Structure, Sign, and Play" conference, marked the 10th anniversary of Khrushchev's secret speech and the Polish October, a communist reform movement. Leszek Kolakowski, a philosophy professor at Warsaw University and a revisionist Marxist, was invited by his students, including Adam Michnik, to deliver a lecture on this anniversary. Kolakowski, still a Communist Party member, delivered a scathing critique, stating that the optimistic promises of revisionist Marxism had not been fulfilled. He argued that the regime was now run by "cheap opportunists" and operated on "negative selection," where individuals devoid of conscience and responsibility were chosen for positions of power. This led to Kolakowski's expulsion from the Communist Party.

Two years later, in March 1968, Kolakowski's students, including Michnik, revolted against Communist Party censorship. These demonstrations were met with violence, and many students, including Michnik, were imprisoned. This event, euphemistically called the "anti-Zionist campaign" (in reality, an anti-Semitic campaign targeting Jewish student leaders), marked a profound disillusionment with the possibility of reforming communism in Poland.

A few months later, the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, crushing the "socialism with a human face" movement, delivered the final blow to hopes for revisionist Marxism. These twin events in Eastern Europe in 1968 signaled the end of Marxism as a living ideology and the "last great grand narrative." This collapse was particularly devastating for the older generation who had dedicated their lives to this worldview.

Divergent Paths: Czechoslovakia's Normalization vs. Poland's Resistance

Following the invasion, Czechoslovakia entered a period known as "Normalization," a return to hardline, neo-authoritarian leadership. The Moscow-installed government shifted its budget from capital investment to consumer spending, leading to an increase in living standards. This was seen as a compromise where the population traded freedom for material comfort, accepting an imposed regime.

Poland, however, took a different path. A joke from the 1970s illustrates this: a Czech dog goes to Poland "to bark" because the regime is more hardline in Czechoslovakia, while a Polish dog goes to Czechoslovakia "to eat" due to better availability of goods. This highlights the different compromises made in each country.

The metaphor of Dostoevsky's Grand Inquisitor became prevalent in Czechoslovakia. In this parable, the Grand Inquisitor tells Jesus that people desire security over freedom and will ultimately surrender their freedom for daily bread. The secret of the Grand Inquisitor, as revealed by Alyosha, is that he himself does not believe in God. This became a metaphor for the post-1968 communist regime in Czechoslovakia: the party's secret was that it no longer believed in communism. Everyone knew the "emperor was naked," yet everyone pretended otherwise, using euphemisms like "fraternal assistance" to describe the violent invasion.

This post-Stalinist, neo-hardline regime in Czechoslovakia, while not as brutally violent as Stalinism, was characterized by opportunism and a pervasive sense of living a lie. The entire society was demoralized, aware of the deception, and crushed under the weight of an imposed reality.

The Power of the Powerless and Living in Truth

Out of this demoralized despair emerged a significant philosophical current, epitomized by Václav Havel, the imprisoned playwright who would later become the first post-communist president of Czechoslovakia. His essay, "The Power of the Powerless," and his "greengrocer paradigm" became central to this new philosophy.

The story begins with the "Plastic People of the Universe," a rock band influenced by The Velvet Underground, who embodied counterculture and rebellion in 1960s and 70s Czechoslovakia. Their manager, Ivan Jirous, an art critic with immense charisma, sought out Havel to support these young musicians who were facing arrest for their underground concerts. Havel, initially skeptical of their music, had an epiphany: "truth was on their side." He realized that the regime's attack on these musicians was an attack on "life itself, on the very essence of human freedom and integrity."

Despite Havel's efforts, the band members were arrested. However, this mobilization led to the creation of "Charter 77" in 1977. This document, co-authored by Havel and other intellectuals, called on the Czechoslovak government to respect the human rights agreements it had signed in the Helsinki Accords (1975). Charter 77 was not a political opposition but a moral statement, advocating for a "free, informal, open community of people of different convictions" united by the desire for human rights. It represented an "anti-politics," a moral force transcending traditional political engagement.

Havel persuaded Jan Patočka, a philosopher and one of Husserl's last students, to become one of the first three spokespeople for Charter 77. Patočka, who had previously avoided political involvement, agreed. He was subjected to exhausting interrogations by the secret police and died in March 1977, becoming a martyr figure whose funeral became a mobilizing event.

Later, Havel met with Adam Michnik and other Polish dissidents on the Sniezka mountain on the Czechoslovak-Polish border to coordinate resistance efforts. Havel articulated the "explosive force of very small actions" and the refusal to be complicit. Michnik, who edited an underground journal (samizdat) in Poland, published Havel's essay, "The Power of the Powerless," dedicated to Jan Patočka.

The Greengrocer Paradigm

Havel's "greengrocer paradigm" illustrates the pervasive nature of living a lie in a totalitarian system. The greengrocer, an ordinary citizen, displays a communist slogan ("Workers of the world, unite") in his shop window, not out of belief, but out of fear. Havel argues that neither the greengrocer, his customers, nor even the regime truly believes the slogan. Yet, everyone participates in this charade.

The greengrocer's complicity stems from the fear of consequences: interrogation, loss of privileges for his children, or imprisonment. However, Havel posits that if all greengrocers were to remove their signs, it would be the "beginning of a revolution." Therefore, the greengrocer is not powerless; his complicity makes him responsible and, in a sense, guilty. Havel argues that the line between victim and oppressor runs through each individual, as everyone is both a victim and a supporter of the system by "living a lie."

Havel asserts that if the system's main pillar is living a lie, then the fundamental threat to it is "living in truth." This concept, influenced by Heideggerian authenticity, is a moral imperative. The greengrocer's lie is twofold: he lies about his belief in communism, and more profoundly, he lies to himself about his own powerlessness (Sartre's mauvaise foi).

Moral Ambiguity and the Parallel Polis

Havel and his colleagues, particularly Václav Benda, developed the idea of a "parallel polis" or "parallel society," where individuals live in truth and self-organize institutions that reflect this truth. However, living in truth entails costs, as illustrated in Havel's autobiographical play, "Audience."

In "Audience," Havel's alter ego, Ferdinand Vaněk, a dissident intellectual, is employed by a brewmaster. The brewmaster is forced to file weekly reports on Vaněk to the secret police. He asks Vaněk to write these reports himself, arguing that Vaněk, as a writer, would find it easy. Vaněk refuses, stating that he cannot participate in a system he finds abhorrent. The brewmaster, in turn, expresses his frustration, feeling that his own moral compromise is deemed acceptable while Vaněk's principles are prioritized. This highlights the moral ambiguity and the lack of innocent choices in such a system, where everyone is implicated.

Truth, Subjectivity, and Responsibility

Havel's philosophy, rooted in Heideggerian thought through Patočka, insists on the reality of truth. The existence of lies, he argues, proves the ontological reality of truth. Seeking truth, even if elusive, is a continuous endeavor. Patočka and Kolakowski shared the belief that while absolute truth might be unattainable, one must never abandon the pursuit of truth, as it is intrinsically linked to ethics.

The philosophical shift here is that a robust subjectivity does not relativize truth but grounds it. Truth and subjectivity are connected through responsibility. Havel's core message, articulated in his address to the American Congress in 1990, was "Consciousness precedes being, and not the other way around, as the Marxist claim." This emphasized individual responsibility as prior to and transcendent of socioeconomic conditions, marking a profound departure from Marxist materialism and a call for authentic engagement with truth.