Essay - Vaclav Havel Power, in Vaclav Havel's View, Comprises More than...

Vaclav Havel

Power, in Vaclav *****'s view, comprises more than just the authority to govern or rule. Although ***** the "post-*****talitarian state," the auth*****ity to rule is a central facet of political power, Havel illustrates the personal, social, and existential dimensions of power that governments wield over ***** people. Although he writes from behind the Iron Curtain in 1978, Havel's essay "Power of the *****less" eerily reflects many of the ***** and existential realities experienced by Americans today. For example, the post-totalitarian ***** "has been completely penetrated ***** a network of manipulatory *****struments controlled by the superpower center ***** totally subordinated to its interests," (II). In the United States, as in the Soviet bloc countries, these "manipula*****ry instruments of power" largely consist of economic organizations and actual places of employment. Therefore, one facet of power is also the ability to manipulate ***** control the means ***** production and thereby control the daily lives of every working person. ***** the American government does not formally own the means of production ***** the Soviets did, governmental *****ficials do indirectly ***** ***** organizations through their corporate *****. For *****, Vice President Dick Cheney is intimately tied with Hallibur*****n, and the Bush family has its hands in numerous major economic powerhouse corporations including oil companies. Furthermore, Havel refers to consumerism in "Power of the Powerless" to illustrate the stranglehold of the consumer ideology over modern society. ***** the United States, ***** capitalist regime has become "almost a secularized religion. It of fears a ready answer to any question whatsoever; it can scarcely be accepted only in part." (II). That *****ism is a religion can be seen easily ***** the way people fetishize money and material goods, how people focus their time and energy on shopping, ***** how people value material goods often more than they value spiritual ideals. Havel notes ***** communism was also a lap *****g of capitalism, just "another form ***** the consumer and industrial society, ***** all its concomitant *****, intellectual, ***** psychological consequences. It is impossible to understand ***** nature of power in our system properly without taking this into account." (*****). Therefore, power, for Havel, incorporates not only *****al and legitimated forms of political control but also more subtle forms ***** mental manipulation.

In communist Czechoslovakia, power was constructed and manipulated through ideology. Ideology permits the perpetuation of ***** by creating an artificial reality, artificial sense of security, and ***** solidarity: "Ideology is a specious ***** of relating to the world. ***** offers human beings the illusion of an identity, of dignity, *****d ***** morality while making it easier for them ***** part with them." (III). Hiding ***** the facade of *****, an individual lives within a lie. Recently in ***** United St*****tes, ideology ***** become a key ***** ***** public disc*****se and a means by which the power structure can manipulate the *****. For example, ***** word patriotism is thrown around a lot in the medi***** ***** the government names acts like ***** PATRIOT act with ideology *****