Postscript — AI and the Baťa System

Prime Minister,

 

Artificial intelligence will reshape global industry, education, and governance far faster than most nations are prepared for. The Czech Republic’s industrial base makes it especially vulnerable to rapid technological disruption unless a clear national strategy is adopted.

 

The most effective defense is one rooted in Czech history: the Baťa system. Its principles — disciplined education, technical competence, responsibility, efficiency, and the integration of schools with industry — offer a practical framework for national resilience in the AI era.

 

Implementing Baťa‑style methods across education, industry, and government would strengthen the country’s ability to adapt, innovate, and remain competitive as AI accelerates worldwide.

***

P.S.

We naively want to control AI. It has long been controlling us, without most of us even realising it. We are still only dealing with the consequences, not the causes. Who can guarantee that AI won’t adopt and employ underhand practices, or that criminals won’t exploit it? AI learns faster than humans. Only the unwritten laws within us hold true. If they do not work, thousands of laws will never put things right. What matters is the quality of the individual, education, common sense and the independence of the media. They must not be allowed to be exploited for the interests of a minority. What do you think would happen if the electricity were cut off? Inevitably, chaos.

 

The pursuit of perfection leads to even greater imperfection, vulnerability and the manipulability of the masses, making them easier to control. We are paying an ever-higher price for a prosperity that is destroying both our lives and Nature. We want ever more things and experiences, ever faster; we are ceasing to live, merely existing in a vacuum. We are literally eating away at the future. Who asks themselves: What will I leave behind?

 

In this deluge of information, we are no longer able to find our bearings; we are slowly reduced to skimming headlines, wanting everything quickly and immediately. Ever faster, to have more things, mindless consumerist ‘experiences’. We are fleeing from real life ever faster towards our own death. AI ‘contributes’ to our physical and mental degeneration. We are not living; we merely exist in a vacuum, watching the lives of others in various ‘boxes’ instead of living our own lives to the full. We do this of our own free will.

 

Who will ultimately be in charge? AI cannot be in charge permanently; it goes against the very nature of life. All it would take is a power cut for us to realise this fully. This is the advantage of being a free human being – provided we do not voluntarily allow ourselves to be stripped of it, even with the ‘help’ of AI.

 

As imperfect beings, we demand perfection in everything, everywhere and as quickly as possible. AI can never provide us with that. If good manners and common sense collapse even where they never should, inevitably, society as a whole will gradually collapse and we will return to the beginning, to our roots.

 

The philosophy of the Baťa company has demonstrated, in practical terms, a meaningful and achievable path that remains as relevant as ever. Let us follow its enduring legacy and its genuine call to a full, meaningful, productive and creative LIFE!