Vaclav Havel was a political genius.  He became the political leader of Poland when the Soviet empire collapsed. He was poet and dramatist.

Havel came from the world of extremes but he did not want to live there. He wanted to establish a politics based on morality.  That seems like a absurd idea doesn’t it? Particularly in this current age of polarization and rage.  People get so enraged with “the other side” that that they regard others who disagree with us as enemies. Or worse.

This is what he said in a New Year’s Day speech:

“Let us teach both ourselves and others that politics ought to be a reflection of the aspiration to contribute to the happiness of the community and not of the need to deceive or pillage the community. Let us teach both ourselves and others that politics does not have to be the art of the possible, especially if this means the art of speculating, calculating, intrigues, secret agreements, and pragmatic maneuvering, but that it also can be the art of the impossible, that is the art of making both ourselves and the world better.”

When was the last time you heard a political leader talk like that? It seems like it must have been a lifetime ago. Imagine trying to make ourselves and the world better. And without “pragmatic maneuvering.

Here is another part of that small speech:

“Our worst enemy today is our own bad qualities—indifference to public affairs, conceit, ambition, selfishness, the pursuit of personal advancement, and rivalry—and that is the main struggle we are faced with.”

And this is what he said as his country was embarking on a democracy after years of tyranny and abuse: “We are going into free elections, and an election battle. Let us not allow that battle to sully the still clean face of our gentle revolution….”

That is what he wanted—a gentle revolution or as some called it, a “velvet revolution.” Compare that to the bombast of our modern world.  All over, not just in America. We can do better. We can dissolve the polarities, but we have to work at it. Bombast and spite are much easier, but a lot less fruitful.