Comments by "" (@TheDavidlloydjones) on "Czechoslovakia's "Socialist Miracle"" video.

  1. Great article. Note, however, that the Velvet Revolution did not "happen" in 1989. It had been trying to burst out for at least 20 years. In 1968 a then well-known Czech "Futurist," (in this case the word meaning a follower of the French Betrand de Jouvnal) visited the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, D.cy were fobbed off on mecause I was known to be a perhaps de Juvenalian. Their leader was killed in an auto accident in Czechoslovakia that winter, and we have all been around Stalinism just enough to be suspicious of the accident. Somewhere in there they all visited Toronto, my long time home town, and I happened to meet them there. I took them to The Brunswick House, at that time a somewhat jazz-oriented drinking hole in what was still a very conservative city, and over a few still fifteen-cent a small glass draft beers they told me their plans: Velvet Revolution. 1969. It was all very precise and detailed, somewhat idealistic with hippy tinges. But it was also highly intelliggent, decent, and democratic in outlook. But it took 20 years to happen.
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