tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5578764475698868093.post6245727862955875871..comments2023-10-08T03:32:33.151-04:00Comments on bookeywookey: Secrecy and Power - Who will resist and who will serve? (Books - Children of the Arbat III)Tedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05511240514127283024noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5578764475698868093.post-52884691504373083922007-08-27T18:06:00.000-04:002007-08-27T18:06:00.000-04:00Ain't that the truth. Anything that happened can ...Ain't that the truth. Anything that happened can make sense - and hopefully we'll have the persistence we need in making some sense of it. but it's sure as hell different from the popular platitude that makes me absolutely crazy - "everything happens for a reason," both fatalism and pie-eyed optimism make me nuts. I suppose after working in both theater and the presidency, you get over the idea that things happen for a reason and just do your best to make sense of them!Tedhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05511240514127283024noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5578764475698868093.post-87314374770799022012007-08-27T16:54:00.000-04:002007-08-27T16:54:00.000-04:00Havel wrote (and I have a lump in my throat as I t...Havel wrote (and I have a lump in my throat as I type his words down):<BR/><BR/>Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5578764475698868093.post-31776387540032500162007-08-27T15:33:00.000-04:002007-08-27T15:33:00.000-04:00Totally!Let's MAKE BELIEVE we're free!Bless him.Totally!<BR/><BR/>Let's MAKE BELIEVE we're free!<BR/><BR/>Bless him.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5578764475698868093.post-55481487525042705502007-08-27T12:51:00.000-04:002007-08-27T12:51:00.000-04:00To live as it he were free - no wonder he was a ma...To live as it he were free - no wonder he was a man of the theater. That is the ultimate act of resistance! <BR/> I didn't know Havel was an idol of your's - but it's no small wonder.Tedhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05511240514127283024noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5578764475698868093.post-82072294786323655032007-08-27T11:13:00.000-04:002007-08-27T11:13:00.000-04:00Havel (one of my idols) wrote a great essay about ...Havel (one of my idols) wrote a great essay about how he decided to live "AS IF" he were free. (Very Stanislavsky-ish of him, huh? The magic "if"?) So he lived AS IF he were free - and therefore was continuously jailed and oppressed - and the entire world knew his plays better than his own countrymen.<BR/><BR/>He was an example for others - and the Velvet Revolution really took his lead. A soft crumbling of the power structure - as more and more people decided to live AS IF they were free ... and finally the Politburo just walked away, muttering, "Ah, screw this ... it's not worth it anymore ..."<BR/><BR/>I mean, I'm oversimplifying but still. Havel's behavior all those years is really inspirational to me.<BR/><BR/>I loved the Yuri storyline in Children of the Arbat as well.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com