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Petr Drulák's megalomaniac prophecy

Publication at Faculty of Arts |
2023

Abstract

In the introduction, the paper identifies three main formal problems of Petr Drulák as a political thinker: (1) excessive thematic ambition, (2) contradiction of content and form, and (3) a tendency to schematism and essentialism. Then the paper illustrates these formal shortcomings by pointing to six contentious moments in his book Podvojný svět [The Dual World]: (1) an overly polarizing depiction of the contradiction between polytheism and monotheism, (2) an emphasis on naturalism in his own solution, (3) a one-sided conception of Central Europe, (4) an overly schematizing depiction of Czech history, and (5) a problematic substitution of "democracy without adjectives" for a liberal democracy that fails to address guarantees of freedoms as its necessary preconditions.

In the sixth section, the paper discusses the similarities and differences between Drulák's position and fascism. It concludes that Drulák has more in common with the Czech "monotheistic prophets" Masaryk and Havel than he would admit.