Jan Šinágl angažovaný občan, nezávislý publicista

From the book ROBERT'S RULES OF ORDER - Attempts to publish this book in the Czech Republic lasted fifteen years. It was published by the Institute for Political and Economic Culture with the support of the VIA Foundation under the "CEE TRUST - Strengthening the Nonprofit Sector" program and the Embassy of the United States of America in the Czech Republic. Unfortunately, we still lack the real elite that we have liquidated ourselves, and therefore the necessary strength to implement the ideas below. A job for generations with an uncertain end. JŠ

***

I don't believe in own Czech way

I do not believe that the prevailing atmosphere of skepticism and small-mindedness needs to be overcome by patriotic pride. Indeed, there is nothing worse than false pride and the idea that a positive attitude towards the place and community in which we live is incompatible with a critical attitude towards oneself and one's fellow countrymen. False patriotism brings xenophobia, provincial self-centeredness and isolation from the outside world.

In other words, I belong to those unpatriotic people who believe that the main task of the Czech intelligentsia is not to seek its own Czech way, not to discover the discovered, but to humbly seek solutions that exist in developed societies. For I dare to distinguish between higher and lower civilizations, more advanced and more backward societies.