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Thursday, December 22, 2011

Václav Havel (5 October 1936 – 18 December 2011)

"The transformation of the totalitarian system into a democratic one is not only a matter of several parties replacing one ruling party and the introduction of some democratic mechanisms," Havel said in a 1994 interview with The Times. "It is also a matter of a great transformation of thinking because people must learn again to be citizens, to rediscover the civic responsibility which the totalitarian regime did not demand from them because it required mere obedience."
Václav Havel