All Eyes Toward Prague?
Some people know that during the 1990’s I had a fascination with the Czech Republic. I traveled there every year during my vacation, from 1993 to1999. During this time I was involved in Christian mission work and visiting people whom I had met on previous trips. Those who have been to Prague, appreciate the fact that it is a beautiful capital city, and it, like a large part of the rest of Czech Republic, was barely touched by World War II bombing, allowing for an architecturally delightful experience in a number of communities.
During the 1990’s I became familiar with several political names that were prominent in the Czech Republic. Vaclav Havel was the famous voice of conscience, the play-wright, who stood up for his convictions during communism and was jailed. He was the country’s first president. I also heard another name, Vaclav Klaus. I did not spend a great deal of time during my travels considering him or his contributions to the Czech Republic. However, as time progresses and he is serving in the role of President of that country, I am taking more notice of him. I am beginning to understand President Klaus as a man of keen intellect, who today is standing at odds with a number of his contemporaries in Europe who, in following failed economic policies, are rapidly leading their countries into bankruptcy.
Sometimes it takes actually living under a system to appreciate that it is a failure. I had a Czech friend who was raised under communism who desired to study English at the university level, but because her family was Christian, she was denied the opportunity. Years ago, I had a co-worker who as a child had to vacate his home in thirty minutes when the communists confiscated the family home and business. These people, and millions of others who have lived under totalitarian systems, appreciate freedom, individual responsibility, and unlimited opportunity. When one is also well educated in economics, such as President Klaus is, he can take that personal conviction and combine it with the credentials of his education to make a difference for his country, and to act as a challenge to other countries in the world.
I have linked to a lecture that President Klaus gave entitled, “The Third Way and Its Fatal Conceits”. The speech, given in 1999, may be thought a bit dated, however, many of the things he speaks about are somewhat timeless concepts that were around long before then, and are very prevalent today. I have included the first four paragraphs here with a link that will take the interested reader to the remainder of the lecture.
The Speech
When I got – several months ago – Milton Friedman’s letter in which he invited me to say a few words here about the “Third Way”, I answered positively without the slightest hesitation. All my life I have been trying to resist anything resembling a third way between socialism and freedom and because of it, it seemed to me that it would be easy to talk about it.
When I started to prepare my manuscript and to search for hard arguments, persuasive quotations and relevant literature and when I began to structure my thoughts, I discovered that the topic is not well-defined, that there are almost no serious academic contributions to such discussion, that we can find either crude, usually almost empty political statements or journalistic, very superficial articles but nothing in-between.
I am afraid I will not be able to make any substantial breakthrough today. I can only add some arguments to the discussion by looking at the chosen problem from the viewpoint of someone who had been openly rejecting the idea of a Third Way already while living in a communist society and in the process of its dismantling. In this respect, I am here in a minority.
After the fall of communism, almost ten years ago, during one of my first opportunities to address Western audiences, I was applauded at the World Economic Forum in Davos by saying: “The Third Way is the fastest way to the Third World”. It seemed to me at that time that the third way thinking was so discredited – together with communism – that no one would dare to defend it or to come with it again. To continue reading
All Eyes Toward Prague?
Posted: October 7, 2012 by Chuck DeShazo
Articles
