“Hope, in this deep and powerful sense, is not the same as joy that things are going well, or willingness to invest in enterprises that are obviously headed for early success, but, rather, an ability to work for something because it is good, not just because it stands a chance to succeed. The more unpropitious the situation in which we demonstrate hope, the deeper that hope is. Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.”
Vaclav Havel
Vaclav Havel, Keith Richards and Mick Jagger
Narrative Warfare
Throughout history, art has played a crucial role in shaping and unifying collective narratives. Narrative is not the story itself, as people often vaguely believe. A story being told, is just one of the ways to shape a narrative. Narrative is the invisible web of shared experience on which the very foundation of culture is built. You have to absorb many songs, poems, fairy tales, nursery rhymes, books and movies to become part of this collective wisdom and meta-experience. Only when you start living in the middle of the narrative you can feel its power, its influence on your own identity. The narrative answers the question of who we are, who we want to be and what our purpose is in this life.
Modern information warfare tries to shape us by bombarding with various bits of information that destroy our common narrative or shift it where it makes no sense anymore. There is only one functional answer to this intentional destruction of the narrative space, i.e. the space in which you know who you are and where you are going. It's not information, it's art.
The Power of Art in Resistance
Tyrannical regimes thrive on control—of information, thought, and expression. They seek to suppress dissent and manufacture a singular, state-approved reality. Art, however, defies these constraints. It communicates truths that cannot always be spoken aloud and can reach the masses in ways that traditional political discourse cannot. A single image, poem, or song can ignite a movement, evoke deep emotions, and foster a shared identity among the oppressed.
One of the most compelling aspects of art is its ability to bypass censorship. Even in the most repressive environments, artists have found ways to encode messages within their work, using metaphor, symbolism, and allegory to evade persecution while still delivering potent critiques. By appealing to emotion rather than cold logic, art makes the consequences of tyranny impossible to ignore
Joan Baez
Art is even more powerful than journalistic reporting because it operates on an emotional and symbolic level that transcends factual documentation. While reporting provides information, art creates common experiences.
Moreover, art is resilient—it can be censored, but its impact often outlives the regimes that try to suppress it.
Art as Resistance
Americans have that experience very strong from their past. Let's just remember Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin. Or The Harlem Renaissance and all the protest songs against the Vietnam War. Remember Joan Baez? Bob Dylan?
I'm Czech, so I'll also stop at my own creators. The film and musical HAIR by the Czech director Miloš Forman has stayed with me to this day in the form of the song I Got Life.
Youtube wants you click down here. It is really worth the click, I can assure you.
In Czechoslovak Dissident Art, there was a band named The Plastic People of the Universe. Their defiant music and refusal to conform led to their persecution by the communist regime, which in turn inspired the formation of Charter 77, a pivotal human rights movement that challenged the Communist regime.
I loved one of their saddest songs, it goes like this:
A man of desperation,
Can easily go crazy
White mushrooms
I will collect in the forest
Whiter than snows
Eating them to satisfy
My need for tenderness
Czech musician and excellent songwriter Karel Kryl wrote hundreds of protest songs after 1968, that Czechs still know by heart, singing them around campfires instead of country music.
Václav Havel, a playwright, dissident, and later president of Czechoslovakia, one of the few world politicians who received a standing ovation in the U.S. Congress, used literature and theater as a means of resistance against Communist oppression. His absurdist plays, such as The Memorandum and The Garden Party, critiqued totalitarian stupidity and impotent rulers and their bureaucracy. Havel also co-authored Charter 77, a human rights manifesto that challenged the regime's legitimacy. His essays, such as The Power of the Powerless, argued that truth, hope and moral responsibility were powerful weapons against authoritarianism. Havel’s legacy endures as a reminder that literature and ideas can dismantle oppressive systems.
The current role of music in the fight against information warfare and attempts to subvert democracy is explored, for example, by the Czech Eolas.
He tries genres. From pop-music, through hard rock to country. I love his catchy Cognitive Cage. Or Fields of Truth? Actually, I love all his songs.
Art is a Unifying Force
One of art’s greatest strengths is its ability to unify people around a common cause. Unlike political rhetoric, art speaks to the universal human experience. It creates a shared language that transcends national, racial, and ideological boundaries. This is why oppressive regimes fear it.
In revolutions, art serves as a bridge between generations, ensuring that the lessons of the past inform the struggles of the future.
Dictators may have silence voices, but they can never erase the power of artistic expression—because art, in its very essence, is freedom itself.
about author
Alex Alvarova is Czech-Canadian author and communication expert.
A recognized authority in political marketing and public relations, a sought-after seminar leader, facilitator, podcaster and public speaker. In 2017 she wrote The Industry of Lies, a non-fiction work that introduces, outlines and fully supports a core concept: Russia used the 2013 presidential election in the Czech Republic as a trial run to perfect its hybrid-warfare aggression for altering the outcome of the 2016 US Presidential elections. In 2021, she published Feeding The Demons: The conquerors of America, a political thriller on behavioral propaganda. She wrote numerous expert articles on political marketing and algorithmic propaganda. Together with her co-host, expert on social media algorithms, Josef Holy, she hosts a czech podcast called Canaries In The Net, on algorithmic propaganda and AI.
I learned from listening to Democracy Now, that Mick Jagger wrote a song called street fighter. About the activist Teriq Ali . And Louise Hartmann is writing a lot of good political songs for our time.
I would love to see visual artist do something similar to Picassos Guernica.