Byzantine Blog

Turbulent Storm Serbia is In Requires Steady Navigation and Patience

Interview with Milos Petrovic, Doctoral Candidate of Political Philosophy at the Berkly University, Glas Javnosti

"Everyone who campaigns for Europe without Kosovo, or Kosovo without Europe is engaging in the plain demagogy. The dilemma 'Kosovo or Europe' is fake, Serbia has to demonstrate that it is precisely the European idea that is being defended in Kosovo. Only those who are not up to the challenge of leading the state are basing their reasoning on the principle "now or never", "all or nothing". Sacrificing one's own citizens merely buys time, turning us into all the while easier, perhaps even sweeter prey," Political Philosophy Doctoral Candidate at Berkly University Milos Petrovic told Belgrade daily Glas Javnosti.

Q: On May 11, Serbia will be faced with the choice to enter the EU without Kosovo or to struggle for Kosovo at the cost of postponing even the drawing nearer to the EU, for the foreseeable future. Is this the fatal choice and who needs it?

MP: There are very few fatal choices in life. Major mistakes are often result of failure to grasp the whole situation, to understand all the possible implications, and of reducing the reality to simplified schemes. October 5 [2000, CIA-funded coup in Serbia] is a good example of how such simplifications can not only lead to hasty actions but, as shown through the later developments, also to the type of actions which were unsuitable for the given historical moment.

The situation we are in today is still extremely complex. The elections will not and cannot resolve it, but they will play a significant role in it. Everyone who campaigns for Europe without Kosovo, or Kosovo without Europe is engaging in the plain demagogy which serves no one either here, or in the European Union.

"Europe" as a Cheap Empty Metaphor Used for Manipulation

Q: Serbia has not been this polarized since 2000. Is joining the EU the only way to a better life, and is the defense of Kosovo and Serbian borders possible only outside the EU?

MP: "Europe" is a word which has been filled with all sorts of contents in our political jargon during the past years. Like prosperity, youth, traveling, future... Although they are presented as the aspects of a certain way of life or as a world view, those contents are often quite random, general, unclear, at the level of the commercial spots. This is why they can be easily used for manipulative, anti-democratic purposes, where "Europe" becomes an empty metaphor for realization of one's basest economic and political interests.

Just like every metaphor, this one also contends for the place of the main truth, which can't and must not be subjected to the critical analysis. In this sense, the word "Europe" is one of the newest terms in Serbian language, one which has no connections to our European orientation, but is exclusively related to the internal politics.

I believe that it is this very imposition of "Europe", forced in such a way, that has contributed to the polarization of our society, where the defense of Kosovo is then equated with the patriarchal family, Orthodoxy, folk music... Such equation is not only overly narrow, but in my view it is also not in the interest of Kosovo defense. It is exactly through the defense of Kosovo where we need to demonstrate the utmost largess and, in that way, expose the fake dilemma "Kosovo or Europe", demonstrating that it is precisely the idea of Europe that is being defended in Kosovo.

Inept Politicians who Reason Like Petty Street Swindlers

Q: You have engaged in public polemics with the theories of [Tadic's] DS Political Adviser Dragoljub Micunovic, who claims we cannot jeopardize our "European perspective in the name of territories or fake heroism", that we can't gamble with our "transformation into an orderly legalistic state with stable institutions". Why do you think that defense of the state territory and the European perspective should not be juxtaposed like that?

MP: Just like one shouldn't rush when making important decisions in the everyday life, we have to be also cautious in politics when confronted with attempts to make us rush into some extreme, allegedly indispensable, solutions. Only those who are not up to the challenge base their reasoning on the principle "now or never", "all or nothing". Such reasoning is suitable for the petty street cons, but not for the state politics.

History teaches us nothing is forever, and that also goes for the interests of the European powers and United States, and their current attitude toward us. It is hypocritical to call that attitude a "perspective", when you are being expected to consent to the violence over your own country and its citizens. We are in an extremely difficult position, but that is exactly why we have to view it from the perspective of the next 25 or 50 years, with an aim to steer clear through the storm until the more opportune moment comes for us. Building a state based on the rule of law, with stable institutions is our obligation not because of "Europe", but because of ourselves.

Do we Place Any Value on the Struggle, Pain and Sacrifices of Our Ancestors who Gave their Lives for Freedom?

Q: You have also criticized Micunovic's stand that present-day generations have no right to risk the normal, safe and better life for themselves and their children, not even in the name of the ancestors or descendants. To what extent would giving up on Kosovo represent a betrayal of the ancestors and would it ease the fate of the descendants?

MP: It is only natural that all men are principally for the normal, safe and better life, but the question is what is behind such endorsement. If those words are not defined concretely, they become mere empty phrases and expendable goods, which can turn very costly for us. In which sense is that life [in the EU, advertised by Micunovic] normal, safe and better? For whom? At what price? At whose expense? All those questions have to be answered before we start juggling those terms in public. The question of the quality of human life is one of the most profound questions.

Secondly, life is a historical category. If our life can be normal, safe and better, whatever that means, it can be so within the realms of possibilities created by none other than our ancestors. Nice and good life doesn't come from nowhere, that is a fact. Do we have an obligation toward hundreds of thousands of our ancestors who gave their lives for freedom? Do we place any value on their struggle, their pain, their death? Some, perhaps, don't. But that crosses over into an issue of personal psychology.

Still, one thing is certain: giving up on Kosovo would not only fail to ease the fate of our compatriots there, such an act would also jeopardize their very physical existence. In that sense, every speech about "our" normal, safe and better life which does not include Kosovo children is pure hypocrisy and immorality. And those two can't be a foundation of anyone's bright future.

There's Always Time to Turn Around and Say: Enough!

Q: You are against the thesis that the entire history was built on injustice and that the powerful were always abusing the weaker. Hasn't the history of the post-October 5 Serbia confirmed that the big ones are indeed abusing the weaker? If the Serbs are guilty of everything, what is their guilt?

MP: It is simply not true that the entire history was built on injustice. Our victory in the First and the Second World War was the victory of justice over injustice. What would have remained of democracy, human rights, social structures, international relations, and even of our own ideals regarding the better life, if everything went according to the bully's plans? Even if the human history was always built on injustice, and it wasn't, this still wouldn't mean that the man could not turn around and say Enough!

What would be the point of our lives if we were to spend them with heads bowed down in obedience, without always trying to step over the boundaries of the existing freedom? It is more correct to say that the human history is at the same time the source of both injustice and justice, non-freedom and freedom, senselessness and sense. It is realistic to expect that is how it will remain in the foreseeable future. There are very few things in our lives which are either black or white, so we lead our lives precisely in those mid-tones, trying to find the optimal solutions in the given situations. The situation in which Serbian nation finds itself today confirms that the injustice, non-freedom and senselessness are quite forcefully marauding through history, but also that the man is not willing to accept that.

Belgrade's No. 2 Circle—The Unfathomable Heights of Selfishness, Arrogance and Crudeness

Q: You have assessed that the advantages of a better life are especially promoted in a Belgrade "No. 2 Circle" [a No. 2 Trolley route, circling around Belgrade's strict downtown], which plays a significant role in the life of Serbia during the last fifteen years. Wasn't Serbia too much under the control of the "No. 2 Circle" in Milosevic's time, under Zoran Djindjic and Vojislav Kostunica too?

MP: There are two issues here. First, during the past two decades in Serbia the divide between Belgrade and the so-called interior is becoming more and more obvious. It shows in the concentration of the political life, the height of investments, the extent of the international cooperation, and in the special status of the socio-political elite which seems to be saying: Serbia, that's me. That is the "No. 2 Circle" which has usurped the unnaturally large chunk of importance for itself.

But Serbia has been run by the "No. 2 Circle" during the past years in another sense too. This involves a certain attitude toward life and to others, an attitude dominated by debauchery and egocentricity, materialism, a degenerate amalgam of the primitivism and the alleged western values. This is especially visible among the young people, whose world view is extremely cynical, overindulgent, focused exclusively on the narrow personal interests. At one point, this was called suburbanism, but I think it has reached unfathomable heights in the "No. 2 Circle".

Divisions Promoted by the Self-Styled Elite Shameful and Humiliating for any Society

Q: You have written that part of the leadership and the "No. 2 Circle" exclude Kosovo-Metohija Serbs from "us", believing that they are holding "us" hostages. You have pointed that some speak about "us" as if "those down there" in Kosovo-Metohija can't hear them. What should "us" mean today, and especially what should it mean tomorrow, for Serbia to have a future? Isn't the Serbian "us" being destroyed purposely, both from within and from the outside?

MP: We must not give in to the same rhetoric Slovenians and Croats, and later [Montenegro's] Djukanovic, have been using against us, when they were justifying the secession by claiming that we are supposedly slowing down their economic development. Dividing citizens by the nationality, religious denomination, income or by the accent is humiliating for every society, and it is so for our society too. Everyone who thinks he can squeeze some benefits out of that is shortsighted.

If we do not raise voice in defense of every one of our citizens and every part of our country, thinking that by staying silent and through selfishness we are saving "ourselves and our children", a day will come when "us" too shall come under attack, and there will be no one to raise their voices in our defense.

Whoever believes that someone who is prepared to lie, steal, rape and kill others would not do the same to us at the right moment is rather naive. Sacrificing one's own citizens merely buys time, turning us into all the while easier, perhaps even sweeter prey.

Recommended: Western pressures on Serbia and the Alternatives, Interview with Srdja Trifkovic (Serbianna.com); Much Ado About Nothing: Serbia, EU Sign Pact – Sort Of, by Nebojsa Malic (AntiWar.com); Interview with Julia Gorin (DzejnDou.com); We should stop trying to intervene in Serbia's elections, by Peter Sain ley Berry (EUObserver.com)