Václav Havel says people need to rethink their priorities

The current cult of economic growth at all costs may harm civilization, the former Czech president Václav Havel said in an interview for Z1 TV, a Czech digital television channel, on Monday. Reflecting on the global financial crisis, Mr. Havel said the cult of consumerism, growth and permanent change could lead civilization into an abyss. The dissident-playwright-turned-president suggested that a certain degree of market regulation here and there could help prevent serious economic crises but it would not change people’s growing obsession with money. He said an existential revolution of some kind was needed to make people recover their wits and re-think their priorities.