“Democracy is not only a form of state, it is not just something that is embodied in a constitution; democracy is a view of life, it requires a belief in human beings, in humanity...I have already said that democracy is a discussion. But the real discussion is possible only if people trust each other and if they try to fairly find the truth.” -- Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk (March 7, 1850- September 14, 1937), first President of Czechoslovakia, 1918-1935. A politician, statesman, and philosopher, Masaryk is regarded as the founding father of Czechoslovakia (which, in 2016, broke up into the Czech Republic and Slovak Republic). Sadly, Masaryk's views didn't always extend to all of humanity -- he expressed anti- Semitic tropes about Jewish influence that were all too common in Europe both then and now, and generally identified humanity as people of European stock. Those are some pretty large blind spots, but again not uncharacteristic of a person of the 19th/ early 20th Century.
A bit of trivia for you: Masaryk is pictured on the album cover of American rock band Faith No More's 1997 "Album of the Year":
No comments:
Post a Comment