Focusing on the Jewish cultural gifts to America and the West might seem oddly specific, but the point Kundera is making is that culture is the stuff that makes us love a place, its history, and its people. We rightly revere the Founding Fathers and honor our military veterans and the sacrifices they made to keep us free. Yet there is a certain level of lived-in culture that makes one not just appreciate a certain place but adore it. This, of course, is not limited to the Jewish contributions to our culture. To describe how African Americans or the Irish enriched our culture from jazz to literature to theater and film would take several volumes.

This is why the postmodern woke culture is so Soviet and so poisonous. Rather than appreciating the variety of cultures and traditions — some more conservative and some more liberal — that make America so dynamic, fun, and interesting, the woke try and force a humorless, totalizing society exactly like the one Kundera battled against. Kundera’s 1967 novel The Joke explored the despair and absurdity of life under Stalin, where a single joke about a government official could destroy a person’s entire life.

Of course, in today’s woke culture, a politically incorrect joke can have the same effect. In recent years Kundera himself has been in danger of being canceled by feminists, who don’t like the depiction of women in some of his books. A young Kundera today might find himself canceled before publishing a word.

[It’s a good point, although the parallel to Mao’s Cultural Revolution is a bit stronger. Both work for me, though. — Ed]