MIHAJLOV'S QUEST
FOR DEMOCRACY AND HUMAN RIGHTS
HILTON, PASADENA, CALIFORNIA, USA, August 4-7, 2011
All friends, colleagues, students, and admirers of Mihajlo Mihajlov (1934-2010) are cordially invited to participate in a re-assessment of his life, work, and legacy whose significance reaches well beyond Tito's Yugoslavia, the Balkans, and Eastern Europe. Mihajlov's quest for democracy and human rights is an inspiration for all who strive for an open society, pluralism, and tolerance. An indefatigable human rights champion, Mihajlov's example contributed to the rise of dissent, civic culture, and civil society which ushered in momentous changes culminating in the peaceful revolution in Eastern Europe and the demise of Soviet rule. Mihajlov's first freedoms–speech, thought, press, assembly, association, philosophical, political and religious persuasion--remain a continuing challenge, East and West, North and South. Curiously, Mihajlov's thought offers a conceptual bridge between Westernizers and Slavophiles, while his universalism helped him befriend dissidents of all ethnic groups. Indeed, Mihajlov's was a universal message of individual freedom and social justice. His undogmatic spirituality and central conception of human dignity drew on Russian religious philosophy. The question arises: Can the quest for global democracy and basic human rights and freedoms be realized in a world of competing socio-economic, political, and ethno-national interests and ideologies? Can equality be reconciled with liberty? And, can science and technology be harnessed to serve, rather than enslave, humanity?
KEYNOTE: "MIHAJLO MIHAJLOV: HOMELAND IS FREEDOM"
Maria M. Ivusic, Washington (Mihajlo's Sister & Translator)
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