Leoš Motl

* 1967

  • “If we identify with the fact that democracy is right… as a system, then it should have mechanisms in it to cleanse itself or correct the problem. And we miss the patience a bit. When, at times in those debates in the early 1990s ... people were saying, in the West, this, over there ... I was thinking, um, that's weird. I was in Switzerland for a while, so there was a lot of discussions, we were new to them, their knowledge was also new, and I said…that we are able to reasonably overcome… certain holes. But more and more I get to the point that we can not anymore. That every society is destined to experience those things. If it doesn't experience them, it doesn't know them. And so, as a company, we are still terribly immature. Because when one thinks about it, like the state we had existed twenty years after the end of the First World War, and it still continuing with more or less good Austrian system, when everything worked. There was not much difference, then there was a terrible gap in the war, then nothing for a while, but it was already under dictation, then it was purely Bolshevik and nothing more. And now for thirty years we have been trying to start something that already existed. I think from the perspective of standard Western democracies we are still actual teenagers. The changes we are experiencing, we feel are very dynamic, great, and it will have to stabilize. If the democracy is indeed the right system to be in, it should have mechanisms to correct the current shortcomings. And I believe it will be repaired.”

  • “Regarding the genesis of civil society, so… one of my uncles, who was deployed in World War II, survived three American air raids at Frankfurt, he always said… and he said that at the end of the Bolshevik… this apathy is worse than in Germany sabotage… and I think that even though we were convinced in the eighty-eighties that people were very apathetic… see your question about how we felt the support of the workers, so I said mmm… but it did happen... again I feel that the apathy towards the establishment is so great that something will happen. Because probably as the society moves in some kind of cycles, now we have gone through some generation change ... there is a generation change ... and after that euphoria, work, exertion, optimism, it fell down a bit. People are wondering if they have a full enough pot, a sufficiently soft bed, a sufficiently strong roof, a sufficiently large car, or even more. It doesn't bother them altogether, let's say… in a more general sense… the state is tightening the screws, at least I feel that the state is tightening the screws. The feeling of my freedom is beginning… why they want this from me… why they want me to fill in this form, why should I sign here or why should I do that… so I feel a little bit that the need for freedom has moved beyond the need for a bigger roll… and of course, the current political situation does not suit me. The leaders of the state are what they are. Who do not suit me, I did not vote for them and I do not think they would be able to represent my country as I perceive it. And that bothers me. Of course it bothers me and I'm active in it, trying to explain, transmit the information, and explain to people what they can do, or what they could do. And of course, it's different than in the 1989, the parallel, if someone is looking for it, is that there are enough people who are angry and want to do something right away. That's probably the only parallel. But the system is different.”

  • “In the end, my colleagues, who were more involved in electronics, were able to establish a modem connection to Vienna, where we were able to download some of the documents available there. Logistically very sophisticated. This was after the strike, but until the strike... then came Thursday, which was at a pace similar to Wednesday. And we found our that if we don't organize it in some way, we'll physically collapse, all of us. So we started to divide the work as standard organizations. So there were some meetings, a) with the management of the school, where the name doc. Jiří Holenda, later rector, came up for the first time. Our great friend, now and forever. And we found out that there are a lot of people at school who want to play it with us. Not against us, because the setup was that we were the rebellious students and we would be terribly angry and fight each other. And suddenly we found that the situation is such that we hardly have with whom to fight. Because, say, in the teaching staff... even if it's a bad term... most people perceive it even more radically than we do. And that the changes will actually occur. It is people like Holenda, Mrs. Valentová, and Mr. Rozenberg et al. In fact, we were able to do it ourselves, and we just cheered that it was. And the school ran in the direction that resulted in the establishment of the University of West Bohemia. It was postulated that way and I am glad I could see it.”

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    Plzeň, 17.06.2019

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The Communists needed to regulate everything

Leoš Motl 2
Leoš Motl 2
photo: archiv pamětníka

Leoš Motl was born on 31 December 1967 in Ústí nad Orlicí and spent his childhood in the nearby village of Knapovec. He was the only son of a local postman. He hardly knew his father, he died tragically when his son was five years old. After elementary school, he joined the grammar school in Ústí nad Orlicí, where he first met the then forbidden literature and music and made short contact with dissent. After graduation he went to Pilsen to study at the University of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering. He was intensively interested in all areas of culture, and enjoyed studying philosophy. He often organized events organized by students at the faculty and at the then Socialist Youth Union. On Friday, November 17, 1989, he attended a planned meeting of university students in Smetana Park in Pilsen. And that same evening he heard from foreign radio about events at a much larger demonstration in Prague. The following Monday, directly at the faculty, at the instigation of a witness, the students expressed a minute of silence to support their colleagues in Prague. During the following hectic days he became one of the main organizers of the student occupation strike and a member of the student strike committee in Pilsen. He was in charge of the printed stuff, looking for objective information, leaflet printing and distribution. Shortly after the Velvet Revolution, he was a member of the Academic Council and assisted in the founding of the University of West Bohemia. At the same time he graduated and in 1990 he started his business. He founded his own advertising studio, later returned to university and worked at Ladislav Sutnar’s Faculty of Design and Art. In 1999 he became one of the signatories of a statement by former student leaders entitled “Thank you for leaving!” and shortly thereafter, during one parliamentary term, he worked in local politics. He lives in Pilsen and still actively engages in civic matters.