Amintiri de la Viața românească by Mihail Sevastos

To celebrate the anniversary of his 200th birthday, this is my tribute to Thoreau. Irrespective of political frictions, I should point out the importance of the Gothenburg symposium in bringing together international scholars in venues outside of the US, thus contributing to a revived European interest in the work of Thoreau which started almost 10 years ago in Lyon, France. Why is it not more apt to anticipate and provide for reform? Why does it not cherish its wise minority? Why does it cry and resist before it is hurt? Why does it not encourage its citizens to put out its faults, and do better than it would have them? Why does it always crucify Christ and excommunicate Copernicus and Luther, and pronounce Washington and Franklin rebels? But it is the fault of the government itself that the remedy is worse than the evil. They think that, if they should resist, the remedy would be worse than the evil. Unjust laws exist: shall we be content to obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress them at once? Men, generally, under such a government as this, think that they ought to wait until they have persuaded the majority to alter them. One such form of protest is a 450 km march to join a massive anti-corruption rally:Īnother one is the silent protest in front of the government party’s local headquarters in Sibiu, which recently marked a year of daily consecutive acts of public defiance:Īs politicians’ relentless assault on the rule of is likely to continue both in Romania and elsewhere, Thoreau’s words sound more urgent than ever: In addition to mass protests, the resist movement uses tactics and strategies which could be considered Thoreauvian in nature, if not manifestly Thoreauvian such as sit-ins, read-ins, or silent protests. In my presentation, Thoreau’s Relevance in (Illiberal?) Romania, I analyzed several forms of protest meant to oppose a corrupt political and administrative class whose power grab ignores and bends the law with impunity.

In May, I attended a three-day symposium hosted by the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, which examined, among other pressing issues, how “liberal interpretations of democracy have increasingly come to be questioned by more protectionist and nativist movements.” After the 2017 exuberant celebrations of the bicentennial of Thoreau’s birth, 2018 was a year of reflection allowing researchers to take stock of Thoreau’s influence and relevance in today’s world.

Amintiri de la Viața românească by Mihail Sevastos