Understanding the Present and Seeking the Future: What does Truth and Love mean?

The well-known phrase “truth and love must triumph over lies and hatred”, uttered by Václav Havel from the balcony of Melantrich in December 1989, became one of the slogans of the Velvet Revolution. Over time, however, these words have often become the target of ridicule. People espousing the values and ideas championed by Václav Havel were, and are, sometimes referred to as “the truth and love brigade”. But do we actually know what precisely the words “truth” and “love” mean? Do people associate too many different ideas with them? Was Václav Havel's phrase a manifestation of naivety or, on the contrary, the clarity of a thinker and statesman looking at history and society from a long-term perspective? These questions and topics and more will be discussed by economist, philosopher and director of the Václav Havel Library Tomáš Sedláček, actress and singer Barbora Poláková and philosopher Václav Němec. Světlana Witovská will chair the debate.