Milan kundera

gubernia,
and in a single night they occupied Tomas's country with their army. 
When Tomas came back to Prague from Zurich, he took up in his hospital where he 
had left off. Then one day the chief surgeon called him in. 
You know as well as I do, he said, that you're no writer or journalist or savior of the 
nation. You're a doctor and a scientist. I'd be very sad to lose you, and I'll do everything 

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"The Unbearable Lightness Of Being" By Milan Kundera
 
91
I can to keep you here. But you've got to retract that article you wrote about Oedipus. Is 
it terribly important to you?
To tell you the truth, said Tomas, recalling how they had amputated a good third of the 
text, it couldn't be any less important.
You know what's at stake, said the chief surgeon. 
He knew, all right. There were two things in the balance: his honor (which consisted in 
his refusing to retract what he had said) and what he had come to call the meaning of 
his life (his work in medicine and research). 
The chief surgeon went on: The pressure to make public retractions of past 
statements—there's something medieval about it. What does it mean, anyway, to 
'retract' what you've said? How can anyone state categorically that a thought he once 
had is no longer valid? In modern times an idea can be 
refuted,
yes, but not 
retracted.
And since to retract an idea is impossible, merely verbal, formal sorcery, I see no 
reason why you shouldn't do as they wish. In a society run by terror, no statements 
whatsoever can be taken seriously. They are all forced, and it is the duty of every 
honest man to ignore them. Let me conclude by saying that it is in my interest and in 
your patients' interest that you stay on here with us.
You're right, I'm sure, said Tomas, looking very unhappy. 
But? The chief surgeon was trying to guess his train of thought. 
I'm afraid I'd be ashamed.
Ashamed! You mean to say you hold your colleagues in such high esteem that you 
care what they think?
No, I don't hold them in high esteem, said Tomas. 
Oh, by the way, the chief surgeon added, you won't have to make a public statement. I 
have their assurance. They're bureaucrats. All they need is a note in their files to the 
effect that you've nothing against the regime. Then if someone comes and attacks them 
for letting you work at the hospital, they're covered. They've given me their word that 
anything you say will remain between you and them. They have no intention of 
publishing a word of it.
Give me a week to think it over, said Tomas, and there the matter rested. 
Tomas was considered the best surgeon in the hospital. Rumor had it that the chief 
surgeon, who was getting on towards retirement age, would soon ask him to take over. 
When that rumor was supplemented by the rumor that the authorities had requested a 
statement of self-criticism from him, no one doubted he would comply. 
That was the first thing that struck him: although he had never given people cause to 
doubt his integrity, they were ready to bet on his dishonesty rather than on his virtue. 

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"The Unbearable Lightness Of Being" By Milan Kundera
 
92
The second thing that struck him was their reaction to the position they attributed to 
him. I might divide it into two basic types: 
The first type of reaction came from people who themselves (they or their intimates) 
had retracted something, who had themselves been forced to make public peace with 
the occupation regime or were prepared to do so (unwillingly, of course—no one 
wanted to do it). 
These people began to smile a curious smile at him, a smile he had never seen before: 
the sheepish smile of secret conspiratorial consent. It was the smile of two men 
meeting accidentally in a brothel: both slightly abashed, they are at the same time glad 
that the feeling is mutual, and a bond of something akin to brotherhood develops 
between them. 
Their smiles were all the more complacent because he had never had the reputation of 
being a conformist. His supposed acceptance of the chief surgeon's proposal was 
therefore further proof that cowardice was slowly but surely becoming the norm of 
behavior and would soon cease being taken for what it actually was. He had never 
been friends with these people, and he realized with dismay that if he did in fact make 
the statement the chief surgeon had requested of him, they would start inviting him to