| | | On March 25, 1995, President Havel of the | | | | | |
| | | Czech Republic gave an address at Victoria | | | | | only suppress and destroy whatever they could |
| | | University, in Wellington, New Zealand. The | | | 50 | | not force into it. Ultimately, they had to declare |
| | | following text contains the opening passage | | | | | war on life itself and its innermost essence. I |
| | | of the address. | | | | | could give you thousands of concrete examples |
| | | | | | | | of how all the natural manifestations of life were |
| 1 | | | Some time ago a wise old man came to see me | | | | | stifled in the name of an abstract, theoretical |
| | | in Prague and I listened to him with admira- | | | 55 | | vision of a better world. It was not just that there |
| | | tion. His name was Karl Popper. He was a world | | | | | were what we call human rights abuses. This |
| | | traveler who watched the course of the biggest | | | | | enforced vision led to the moral, political, and |
| | | war ever waged by humankind - the war un- | | | | | economic devastation of all of society. |
| 5 | | leashed by the tribal fury of Nazi ideology - from | | 4 | | | Instead of such holistic engineering, Popper |
| | | this country, from New Zealand. It was here that | | | 60 | | argued for a gradual approach, for an effort to |
| | | he thought about the state of the world, and it | | | | | improve incrementally the institutions, mecha- |
| | | was here that he wrote his most important books. | | | | | nisms, and techniques of human coexistence, |
| | | Undoubtedly influenced by the harmonious | | | | | and to improve them by remaining constantly in |
| 10 | | coexistence of people of different cultures on the | | | | | touch with experience and constantly enriching |
| | | islands of New Zealand, he asked himself why it | | | 65 | | it. Improvements and changes must be made |
| | | was so difficult for the idea of an open society to | | | | | according to whatever has proved to be good, |
| | | prevail against wave after wave of tribalism, and | | | | | practical, desirable, and meaningful, without the |
| | | he inquired into the spiritual background of all | | | | | arrogant presumption that we have understood |
| 15 | | enemies of the open society and into the patterns | | | | | everything about this world, and thus know ev- |
| | | of their thinking. | | | 70 | | erything there is to know about how to change it |
| 2 | | | Addressing you on this ceremonial occasion, | | | | | for the better. |
| | | I should like to offer a few remarks on Sir Karl | | 5 | | | In my country one of the understandable reac- |
| | | Popper’s thoughts. One of the targets of Popper’s | | | | | tions to the tragic experience of communism is |
| 20 | | profound criticism - criticism he supported by | | | | | the opinion we sometimes encounter that man |
| | | ample evidence - was a phenomenon he called | | | 75 | | should, if possible, refrain altogether from trying |
| | | holistic social engineering. He used this term to | | | | | to change or ameliorate the world, from devising |
| | | describe attempts to change the world for the | | | | | long-range concepts, strategic plans, or visions. |
| | | better, completely and globally, on the basis of | | | | | All this is seen as part of the armory of holistic |
| 25 | | some preconceived ideology that purported to | | | | | social engineering. This opinion, of course, is |
| | | understand all the laws of historical development | | | 80 | | greatly mistaken. Paradoxically, it has much in |
| | | and to describe inclusively, comprehensively, | | | | | common with the fatalism Popper sees in those |
| | | and holistically a state of affairs that would be the | | | | | who believe that they have grasped the laws of |
| | | ultimate realization of these laws. Popper clearly | | | | | history and that they serve those laws. This fatalism |
| 30 | | demonstrated that this pattern of human thinking | | | | | takes the form of the peculiar idea that |
| | | and behavior can only lead to totalitarianism. | | | 85 | | society is nothing more than a machine that, |
| 3 | | | I come from a country that lived for several | | | | | once properly set in motion, can run on its own, |
| | | decades under a Communist regime, and on the | | | | | automatically and forever. |
| | | basis of my own experience, I can confirm that | | 6 | | | I am opposed to holistic social engineering. I |
| 35 | | Sir Karl Popper was right. In the beginning was | | | | | refuse, however, to pour out the baby with the |
| | | an allegedly scientific theory of historical laws; it | | | 90 | | bath water and I am a long way from thinking that |
| | | was Marxist theory and it subsequently gave rise | | | | | people should give up altogether on a constant |
| | | to the Communist utopia, the vision of a paradise | | | | | search for ways to improve the world in which |
| | | on earth. That vision eventually produced the | | | | | they must live together. It must be done, though |
| 40 | | gulags, the endless suffering of many nations, | | | | | they may never achieve more than partial im- |
| | | the endless violation of the human being. | | | 95 | | provements in particular areas, though they will |
| | | Anything that in any way opposed the Com- | | | | | always have to wait to see whether the change |
| | | munist vision of the world - thus calling that | | | | | was the right thing to do, and though they must |
| | | vision into question or actually proving it wrong - | | | | | always be prepared to rectify whatever life has |
| 45 | | was mercilessly crushed. Needless to say, life, | | | | | shown to be wrong. |
| | | with its unfathomable diversity and unpredictability, | | | | | |
| | | would not be squeezed into the crude | | | | | |
| | | Marxist cage. The guardians of the cage could | | | 100 | | ‘New York Review’, June 1995 |
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