Lesson about freedom - Fri, Apr 18, 2025
Lesson about freedom
Werich:
The words alone don’t give a clear answer or advice for a situation like the one we’re in, but something strange happened. I’ve been getting letters. And one of those letters was quite thick. Because I’m a curious person, I opened that thick envelope first, and inside was this book.
Someone from Hradec Králové sent it to me, someone I don’t even know personally. I opened the book and started reading. And suddenly, it struck me that this is actually a message. It’s a message from a great patriot who gave his life for his patriotism. I’d like to share that message.
Excerpt from the Book
“That’s how it is. It’s good that there are elephants and ponies among the nations. And it’s good when the little ones get a bit of a smack from time to time, especially if they forget they have to stay together. But it should never happen that one of these little ones ‘gets crushed,’ as they say. Because the little ones have an immortal soul just like the big ones.
My father and I often talked about small nations.”
Werich:
With your father, Mr. Škutina. Do you know who my father was?
Škutina:
President Masaryk.
Werich:
Yes, T. G. M. And this is what his witty son Jan says:
“My father and I often talked about small nations. I was always the family skeptic. The old man never stopped believing that the little ones have their own role in the world, just like the big ones. And whenever someone ‘threw in the towel’ just because they were born Czech or Slovak and not Russian or American, my father would get upset. He called such people ‘fools.’
He distinguished between ‘fools with an accent mark’ and ‘fools without an accent mark.’ Those without were, in his view, more dangerous.
But there was one point we disagreed on. He believed that small nations, like us Czechs, should serve as bridges between the big ones. That idea never quite appealed to me. People tread on bridges. But I did agree with the old man that a person can be just as proud of being born in Prague or Bratislava as if they’d been born in Moscow or Washington.”
We should bring the results of our political thinking to the world market and lay them out next to the goods from Washington, Paris, London, and Moscow. Of course, the little ones can learn a lot from the big ones, but they can also teach them a thing or two. We should learn from the big ones, but we shouldn’t mimic or parrot them.
A nation, whether small or large, must never lose its originality. Otherwise, it ceases to be a nation.
On Small Nations and Great Powers
I often talked with Karel Čapek about small nations. Once, during one of these talks, he said:
“Look over there at that tree. It has big branches and small branches. The big branches support the small ones. And sap flows from the big ones to the small ones. And they don’t take the sap from the small branches. That’s how the great powers should treat small nations.”
On Ideas and Humanity
A person can believe either in force or in ideas. If you believe humans are truly homo sapiens, and that greatness shouldn’t be measured by how many tanks or cannons one has, but by how originally and deeply one can think, then I can give you a thousand examples proving that great ideas can be born just as well in the last Czech or Slovak village as in some metropolis.
“You know, I haven’t worn out many shoe soles on the way to church, and my pants aren’t very worn at the knees from kneeling.
But one thing I always believed in is that God made us all the same. One is white, another black; one is as beautiful as you and me,” (he says jokingly), “and another pockmarked from smallpox.
But we all feel cold when it’s freezing outside, and we all sweat when the sun is blazing. And we all need to breathe so we don’t suffocate. And in the end, we all get taken away.
Are we mortal or immortal?
Because of this, we must never make each other slaves. Everyone, whether their father was a president or a tinker, must have the same opportunity to live a full life.
No one should ever think they’re better or more important than another person. Maybe they have more in their head, maybe they wear a better shirt, maybe they have more skillful hands, maybe they have bigger biceps. But all this only obliges them to do more for those with smaller biceps and worse shirts.
But only people who love people can believe and understand this. To love people and care for people — that is the whole secret and the only recipe for happiness. And this applies to everyone. To me, to you, to Stalin, and to Truman, and to the whole world.”
A Thought on Freedom
Sometimes I think we made a huge mistake when we left the topic of freedom to poets and rally speakers. Poets don’t define things very precisely. And rally speakers don’t define things clearly at all.
We should have left the topic of freedom to teachers.
Children should have learned about freedom in school. Scientifically, just as they learned to read, write, and do math. And it should have been a mandatory subject. Very mandatory. Every day.
We should have taught them that freedom isn’t just some kind of romance, like “love and devotion” or “homeland balm.” It’s not just a poetic cry for wings.
We should have taught them the difference between true freedom and anarchy. That freedom must always be connected with discipline. That everyone can do what they want, but only as long as they don’t step on their neighbor’s toes.
But people are difficult. They only truly value things when they’ve lost them — even if only for a little while.
That applies to freedom just like everything else.
Until someone stands behind you with a gun at your back, dictating what you can write, say, or teach — you don’t really understand what a great thing it is to be able to write, say, and teach what you truly believe in.
Werich:
And that’s the message.
Škutina:
Thank you for this message, for this lesson in freedom.