Harvel - "The Failure of Communism"

Harvel's speech to the people is honest and tells them the horrible state that the country is in. He goes on to tell them that the new government will need the help of the people to fix the country. He hopes that the new country will be free and that as much as the government serves the people, the people will serve the government.

I. The Truth Unvarnished
a. Previous Communist leaders lied to the people about prosper and success.
b. Harvel will not lie to the people; he admits what a terrible state Czechoslovakia is in.
c. The state humiliates the works it is supposed to support, its economy is poor, and its education system is lacking severely, and the environment is almost toxic to life.

II. Learning to Believe Again
a. The moral of society are poor because people lie, don't trust each other, and are selfish.
b. "The concepts of love, friendship, mercy, humility or forgiveness have lost their depths and dimension, and for many of us they represent only some sort of psychological curiosity or they appear as long-lost wanderers from faraway times, somewhat ludicrous in the era of computers and space ships."

III. Cogs No Longer
a. Communism has turned the people of Czechoslovakia from people to machines, slowly wearing themselves out.
b. It was not just the Communists who brought on the Totalitarian regime, the people helped support it by accepting it and adjusting to its ways. The people must accept the fact that the Communist regime is part of their heritage and not something from another country. If they accept it as their own, they can understand it.
c. The President and the Parliament cannot fix the country by themselves, after all democracy and freedom mean that participation by the whole population.

IV. Recalling Ruined Lives
a. The freedom gained by the Czechs came at a price, thousands of people died in prisons and were driven out of the country.
b. Human suffering affects all human beings, without the events in the Soviet Union, Poland, Hungary, and the German Democratic Republic, the events in Czechoslovakia could not have happened.
c. Only the people now can fulfill the hope of democracy.

V. A Humane Republic and The People Hold Sway
a. Harvel hopes that the new republic will be independent, free, and democratic. He also hopes that man will serve it as it serves man.
b. The government of the people has returned to them.