Politics & Power Quote by Milos Forman

The real sting here is how Forman frames impunity as a kind of perverse genius. “Absolutely brilliant” lands like a dry laugh: not admiration, but the recognition that a system can be technically sophisticated while morally hollow. He’s describing power that doesn’t need to justify itself because it doesn’t fear consequences. The “one way, you know” is doing quiet work, too, signaling a lived memory rather than a theory - the cadence of someone still incredulous at how openly the rules were suspended for the right people.

Forman’s intent isn’t to itemize Communist Party corruption as a scandal; it’s to show how the absence of punishment becomes the regime’s most effective technology. The subtext is psychological: ordinary life is distorted not only by what’s forbidden, but by what’s permitted to insiders. When guilt doesn’t matter, morality becomes a costume. “Steal, lie, whatever” isn’t just a list of crimes; it’s the flattening of ethics into casual habits, the normalization of cynicism.

Context matters: Forman grew up under Nazi occupation, then Communist Czechoslovakia, before the Prague Spring’s brief opening and the Soviet crackdown that pushed him into exile. His films - from The Firemen’s Ball’s bureaucratic farce to One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’s institutional coercion - obsess over systems that win by making dissent feel futile and compliance feel rational. This quote distills that worldview: authoritarianism doesn’t only punish enemies; it rewards loyalists with lawlessness, and that bargain is how it reproduces itself.