Ever feel like you’re just… performing?
Reposting a graphic. Using a specific phrase. Staying quiet in a group chat. Not because you fully believe it—but because it feels risky not to. That feeling isn’t new.

In The Power of the Powerless (1978), Czech writer and dissident Václav Havel explores this exact dynamic through a thought experiment. He asks readers to imagine a shopkeeper in communist Czechoslovakia who places a sign in his window reading: “Workers of the world, unite!”

The shopkeeper does not believe the slogan.
He does not argue with it.
He barely thinks about it at all.

Havel is clear that this is not a true story. It is a constructed example meant to reveal something real: how ordinary people, through small and routine actions, help systems endure.

ChatGPT Image Jan 23, 2026, 11_53_45 AM.png

Living Within the Lie

Havel argues that many oppressive systems are not held together mainly by violence. They are held together by participation. In his imagined scene, the shopkeeper displays the sign not because he agrees with it, but because refusing to do so would attract attention. The sign signals to everyone passing by—officials, neighbours, customers—that he is compliant and not worth noticing.

Havel calls this condition “living within the lie.” It describes a situation where people repeat slogans, follow rituals, and perform loyalty even when they privately doubt what they are expressing.

On its own, one sign means very little. But when millions of people perform the same action—say the same words, repost the same ideas, or stay silent in the same moments—the performance becomes the environment everyone moves within.

ChatGPT Image Jan 23, 2026, 11_57_18 AM.png

Why the System Needs the Shopkeeper

Havel’s most unsettling claim is that systems do not only rule over people. They rule through them. By hanging the sign, the shopkeeper helps define what “normal” looks like. Children learn what adults do. Authorities see continued compliance. Nothing dramatic needs to happen for the system to feel stable.

The sign communicates a simple message: This system is not being questioned.

And when a system looks unquestioned, fewer people consider challenging it. The routine reinforces itself.

Fun Fact:

Havel wrote this essay years before communist regimes in Eastern Europe collapsed, arguing that systems built more on performance than belief appear strong—but are often brittle underneath.

Living in Truth

Havel contrasts this with what he calls “living in truth.” In the thought experiment, this happens when the shopkeeper simply stops putting up the sign. He does not protest publicly. He does not persuade others. He just refuses to perform a belief he does not hold.

Havel suggests this is threatening precisely because it is quiet. Once the performance stops, the system must explain why an ordinary action is treated as a problem. Others may recognise that their private doubts are not unique.

ChatGPT Image Jan 23, 2026, 12_07_08 PM.png

Why This Still Matters Today

Nearly five decades later, the shopkeeper’s sign has not disappeared. It has changed form. At the 2026 World Economic Forum in Davos, the Canadian Prime Minister invoked Havel’s metaphor to interpret contemporary global politics. He suggested that entire countries can fall into patterns similar to the shopkeeper’s—repeating familiar language because questioning it feels riskier. For years, many middle-power nations used phrases like “the rules-based international order” while privately acknowledging that the system often applied unevenly.

The argument was not that cooperation or shared values were mistakes. It was that continuing to perform confidence in systems that no longer function as described can limit honest decision-making.

tripfest_illustration_of_an_international_summit_setting_in_t_41afffe0-1291-4cea-98a9-6afa8eca2850_1.png

Today, power often operates through trade, supply chains, finance, and technology. In that environment, repeating established language does not always provide protection. What once seemed pragmatic can begin to look like avoidance. Through Havel’s lens, both individuals and states may find themselves “living within a lie” not because they intend to deceive, but because honesty feels costly. Systems built on performance remain stable only while people continue to play their assigned roles.

Taking the sign down does not mean rejecting cooperation or shared values. It means noticing the gap between what is said publicly and what is understood privately—and deciding how much longer that gap should exist. Once you notice the performance, it’s hard to unsee it. And that is where choice begins.