Havel's greengrocer
example · essay: The Power of the Powerless ·
retold in 3 talks
From Havel's Power of the Powerless: a shopkeeper puts a 'workers of the world unite' sign in his window he doesn't believe, and the system persists through this mass ritual participation in known falsehood.
≤2000talks it is told in, per year2026
As told 3
“Every morning this shopkeeper places a sign in his window: workers of the world unite. He doesn't believe it, no one does, but he places a sign anyway to avoid trouble.”
“doesn't believe in it, nobody believes in it. he still participated in the ritual”25:28 Slavoj Žižek on the Velvet Revolution and Vaclav Havel on Czech televisionpub. 2024-08-23 · 28:42
“Every morning this shopkeeper places a sign in his window: 'Workers of the world unite'. He doesn't believe it, no one does, but he places a sign anyway to avoid trouble.”
What it carries
one story, many jobs: the ideas this anecdote is deployed to argue, one tally mark per use (an idea page shows the same relation from the other end, as its shelf of stories)
Its cast and sources
populated by
Roberto Gualtieri2Anton Alikhanov2Alexander Kharichev2Dmitry Peskov2Mark Carney2Nicolás Maduro2Arthur Balfour2Pete Hegseth2
alongside works
Every retelling 3
From Havel's Power of the Powerless: a shopkeeper puts a 'workers of the world unite' sign in his window he doesn't believe, and the system persists through this mass ritual participation in known falsehood., illustrating ideology,hegemony
25:28 Slavoj Žižek on the Velvet Revolution and Vaclav Havel on Czech televisionpub. 2024-08-23 · 28:42
A greengrocer puts the official slogan in his shop window; nobody believes in it, not even him, yet he still participates in the ritual, Havel's image of ideology in 'living in truth'., illustrating ideology,really existing socialism,ritual participation
A shopkeeper puts a 'Workers of the world unite' sign in his window every morning; he doesn't believe it and neither does anyone else, but the system persists through mass participation in rituals privately known to be false., illustrating ideology,interpellation