By Andrej Nikolaidis, CdM columnist
Today we are “knocking on the door of forgotten aces”.
You know that phrase? Yes, there is a Surrealist Top List sketch of the same name, and supposedly, while Tito’s Yugoslavia was alive and well, one of the regional RTV companies broadcast a sports show under that title. But not even I – and I’m as old as Greece; I watched them build the pyramids, how salt, like snow, fell on Carthage and how Rome burned – remember.
However… Today we are to deal with spins. Not of “those others”, but those from “our side”. We are to deal with spins that have turned into illusions.
You must have noticed that people aggressively defend their illusions. Touch their illusion, they will dig your eyes out. People do this not because it is irrational, but the exact opposite: because they know the value of illusions.
They, illusions, help push through life.
However… From time to time, each of us experiences an overdose of illusions. Then it gets nasty. Then it hurts. The same applies to communities, to the imaginary collective identities they call nations.
I think this is exactly what is happening to the citizens of Montenegro.
Therefore, we see what we had, like in some kind of tavern, after drinking…
“With the arrival of Biden, everything will change.” Do you remember that? And, has it changed? Yes, but for the worse. Is it easier for you since Biden? It’s not. Is the state of democracy in Montenegro better, since the Biden administration deals with the export and quality control of these valuable goods to our country? The question is, of course, rhetorical.
“The war in Ukraine is beneficial to Montenegro”. Do you remember that? Aside from the fact that such a thing is ethically repulsive to even think about, let alone say. What: an atomic bomb drop on Kiev would strongly push our cause, that would strongly make our thing progress? Aside, I say, from the fact that the spin was disgusting: it was also stupid. The stupidity of that thesis is almost equal to the stupidity of a man who is able to be amazed by the “education” and “eloquence” of Bozena Jelusic, those outpourings of mediocrity crossed with amorality, are created to overshadow dullness and simplicity.
And do you remember, honestly, this: “Everything is going according to plan: DPS keeps everything under control”?
And this: “Entering the government with Dritan is a genius move.” Sure. Bravo, congratulations. He sold you the rope on which he hung you.
And this: “You should be calm regarding the Fundamental Agreement, it is part of a bigger plan, the contours of which you cannot see, but you should believe in it.” I believe it, because it’s absurd and so on, get it? It was like telling a man sentenced to be shot to give up his last words, so what he has to say to his family, friends, enemies and the world – he will say later, after the execution.
Ok, it’s clear.
Why am I telling you all this? Because it’s time to, let’s say tonight, burn illusions. Actually, the time for that has long passed. It’s been late for a long time.
The “sovereignist” political elite is spent. Whenever there are elections, they will not win. In the presidential elections, the government’s candidate will win, whoever it is. The US is no longer our ally, let alone our protector. That country stands behind the Open Balkans, into which we will be pushed these days. The Open Balkans is the end of all illusions about “European integration” of Montenegro. This means that either all of us enter the EU, or no one. So: nobody. The Open Balkans means that we will be an economic, cultural, spiritual and political colony of Serbia. The open Balkans is the establishment of the “Serbian World”. This means that we will be exposed to exploitation and assimilation. If we continue to hope that the former colonial powers will save us from colonial status, it means that we are, above all, morons.
All this means that the fight, whoever is up to the fight, will be long and with little chance of success. And yet, we will win. Because there is one thing that the evil ones overlook. Whether you are a servant or you think you are a master; whether you are driven by fear or a sense of omnipotence; everything will fall. There is no such force – and it is especially not a miserable Balkan empire – that can break the resistance of the human spirit.
It also means that anger and violence are not allies. Violence is the ally of the wicked and the worst enemy of the righteous. They want you to become violent. If so, it will be their greatest triumph.
I have already said this. Don’t mind me repeating it.
Victory does not require any great demonstrations; no epic, heroic act. The answer to the question “when will we win” once again lies in art. This time not in a song, not in a book.
But in the movie. It is called “Dangerous Liaisons” and it was directed by Stephen Frears.
In that film, Marchioness Isabelle de Merteuil, played by Glenn Close, destroys people’s lives with unscrupulous lies and scheming, the way Abazovic destroys Montenegro.
At the end of “Dangerous Liaisons”, the marchioness, like so many times before, comes to his box of honor in the Paris Opera House. But this time, she does not receive warm greetings and appreciation. No. Everyone present turned their backs on her in disgust: the whole hall of the Paris Opera echoes with the whistles directed at the hooligans. Marchioness leaves, forever and irretrievably disgraced.
Montenegro will heal from the filth – for which we are all guilty and which did not appear out of nowhere, but there were deep and valid reasons for it, from our self-delusion and our weaknesses – which covered it the way waste covers cities hit by a tsunami or a flood, be cured only when Dritan Abazovic, every member of his gang of robbers, every official of his party, every soldier of his media service, led by Miodrag Perovic and Zeljko Ivanovic, go to the theater, a pub or to buy burek (*baked filled pastry), and face with public civil contempt and clearly expressed disgust for what they had done.
So: no violence at all. Just not that. It’s better to show contempt. Because contempt is, after all, far more violent than violence.
If this society does not have the strength, courage and sincerity even for that; if the “sovereign” nations will continue to cooperate with those they call traitors, whenever it seems to them that no one sees them; Then nothing.
Then everything is as it should be.
