ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the life and work of dissident and later last president of Czechoslovakia and first president of the Czech Republic, Václav Havel. It focuses on the theme of neklid as a practice of presence. Similarly to Simone Weil, Havel’s upbringing was shaped by a sense of inadequacy and of being ‘out of place.’ This chapter follows Havel as he explores this experience – highlighting, as playwright and dissident, the absurdity of the post-totalitarian system both in the East and West and the potentiality for “living in truth” within it. Through a discussion of the themes of identity and responsibility, as well as Being, this chapter explores how Havel envisioned an anti-political politics and authentic politics as morality in practice.
