Announcing The Life of the Mind: an Interview Series

Roger Scruton was deeply engaged in efforts to resist the oppression of communist regimes in Central Europe. His involvement in the underground universities and active support of dissidents was recognized with the First of June Prize from the Czech city of Plzeň, the Czech Republic's Medal of Merit (First Class) presented by President Václav Havel, the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland, and the Silver Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary.

Often at considerable personal risk, Scruton organised seminars on forbidden topics, smuggled in censored books, and smuggled out exam papers of students for whom he arranged the possibility of taking Cambridge University degrees. Back home, at a different, though no less real, personal risk he publicly criticised the communist ideology, which in the West was championed and idealized by many influential figures.

Scruton believed that communism was a dehumanizing force, which destroyed the individual’s capacity to form meaningful social bonds by not only taking away their fundamental freedoms but undermining the very notions of accountability, judgement, or duty. His aim therefore was not merely to provide opportunities of which totalitarian oppression deprived its victims, but to help them to maintain their mutual availability to one another as persons through the life of the mind.

The fundamental danger that Scruton saw in communism has outlived it: without the constant intimidation the need of preservation of identity and individuality began losing its urgency, making way for a different kind of threat the newly freed communities were often ill prepared for. But like the danger, the response Scruton offered remained unchanged: the study of the human heart and soul through the products of culture in which they find expression. He saw this as a duty we have to one another, and continued to advocate and promote this in all its forms throughout his life.

The Life of the Mind, an interview series by Dr Mikołaj Sławkowski-Rode, Senior Fellow in the Philosophy of Culture, will explore themes connected both to the challenges the region faced under communism, and the new reality it finds itself in today. Guests of the series will include those who worked together with Roger behind the Iron Curtain, his former students, as well as those who, like him, care about the culture and identity of Central Europe.  

The Roger Scruton invites you to join us on April 27 for our first interview with Marek Matraszek. Matraszek worked alongside Scruton in Central Europe, having first served as Secretary of the U.K.-based Jagiellonian Trust before becoming the Director of the Jagiellonian Foundation in Poland. He was later appointed to serve as the representative to the Margaret Thatcher Foundation in the region and as the Poland Director of the Windsor Group. Today Matraszek is a political adviser to a range of Western multinationals in Poland and Central Europe and serves on the Roger Scruton Legacy Foundation’s Board of Directors.