Metaphysical Underpinning of the Global Civilization of the Future According to Václav Havel

• In Event: Steps to Liberation: Poland and Czechoslovakia

Abstract

Beyond the existence of universal political and economic institutions, the global civilization of the future, as Havel envisaged it, required for its completion a supplement which would fill the existing spiritual void. Humanity within this all-embracing civilization needed to develop a relationship with the transcendent reality also in order to fulfil its responsibility in the stewardship of the earth. Coexistence, peaceful life together, and creative cooperation in the contemporary multicultural world had to rest on what was the common starting point and common ground of all cultures. The source was transcendence, which was infinitely more deeply located in human hearts and minds than any political opinions sympathies or antipathies.

These tenets represented the common root which connected the most diverse cultures, as well as the common primeval origin of diverse spiritual orientations. These commandments of the archetypal spirituality were in agreement with what even an unbeliever (without knowing why) would consider correct and sensible. Havel did not advocate a renewal of outdated rituals or liturgies in order to recapture the transcendent. Instead, he pleaded for the recognition of the deep mutual kinship that derived from the identical primeval spirituality. This recognition was the only way toward a true responsibility of man for himself and for the world. It was also the only way for the various cultures to understand each other and be able to cooperate in the new world-order.

Author

• Zdenek V. David, Woodrow Wilson Center, Kennan Institute