LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Spring 2007

by Pavol Hrušovský

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Sir,

Jiří Dienstbier’s article described the atmosphere of the Velvet Revolution and its aftermath very accurately. I’ve found that when I highlight in green the positive fruits of the revolution and the negative ones in red, there is slightly more red ink than green. The red issues can be more or less summarised by the term “western consumer society”, as was foreshadowed by the opening paragraph of his article.

The euphoria in the first weeks and months of the Velvet Revolution was really very strong. But expectations were too high, and people failed to realise that the main enemy was not the communist system but the damage to inner values they had suffered under an “unnatural” political system. When a society has been harmed for 40 years, it needs at least 40 to recover!

Slovaks are today being affected by another process, and it is one that hurts western developed nations as well as the post-communist countries. The secularisation, individualism and ethical relativism of our consumer societies is causing people to feel less rooted and less safe. In ex-communist countries, these feelings of insecurity are probably also being fed by the painful process of coming to terms with the true nature of our societies. There is no communist propaganda to hide the harsh realities, so now we see our lives, our relations and our media without embellishment. But this should not be seen as a negative experience because it is only by seeing the truth that we can remedy our problems.

We in Slovakia had another bitter experience from 1994-1998 when Vladimír Mečiar introduced his authoritarian regime. People felt that their hard-won gains were once more under threat, but the democratic forces gradually united and in 1998 they overthrew his rule. Now there is another kind of populist government, but this time things are different. Democracy is more deeply entrenched and we are more firmly on course.

I would like to touch on another issue that was not mentioned in Jiří Dienstbier’s article. Religious freedom was probably one of the most valuable benefits of the revolution. Many in Slovakia now say they cannot imagine living without this freedom, in the way they had to under communism. Yet Slovakia’s present course is to quash religious belief through the eradication of the spiritual side of our lives and the imposition of today’s consumer-oriented lifestyle. This is perhaps even more dangerous and detrimental to our well-being than communism. The Velvet Revolution brought us freedom to travel, freedom to read and all the possibilities of modern technology. But we must also keep our spiritual roots alive if we are to find fulfilment. Without religious values, all the material wealth in the world will not bring us happiness.