It is said that Solomon, one of the wisest of the ancient world, constantly wore a ring on his hand that read: "this too shall pass." When he was beset by some trouble, or when he experienced some special joy or excitement, he would look at the inscription on the ring and pacified his feelings, re-establishing the inner peace and balance without which a person, in the capriciousness of life's events, can easily lose himself.
However, this ancient wisdom is difficult to follow in our stale, almost stale social reality. Because with us, everything repeats itself persistently and nothing ever "passes." The long-term continuum of timid self-assertion and sycophancy towards a decadent government made us not only lose ourselves and our inner peace, but also to completely cancel any form of ballast and measure in community life, without which, as Plato said, there is no orderly state.
Not to mention the maniacal nature and some kind of, let's call it, "eccentric dystrophy" of the Montenegrin government, when there is robbery, persecution and brute force against political opponents. This ruling disease strikes us spontaneously, in moments of extreme delirium and despair, when the beast of power is wounded. It is no longer just about the usual illegal and immoral behavior, but about emphasized immoralism, public suppression of all ethical values, open disregard for even the semblance of socially proclaimed justice and fairness.
Suzana Mugoš comes to mind. I remembered Sreten Radonjić, Marta Šćepanović, Luiđ Škrelje. I also remembered that judge Ćuković, who originally sentenced Milan Knežević to seven months in prison. I also remember these others, who reduced his darkening to four months, and thus supposedly "corrected" the previous "justice."
There have always been those who judged relying solely on the whims and desires of the head of the regime, but it never seems this sloppy, brutal, shameful. Robert Muzil in his "Man without attributes" gave us a suitable diagnosis for such a state of affairs, calling it "kakania". This is not only about the position in which society, institutions, and the state are degraded, but also the individual. Because the absence of order in the state emanates disorder in the soul of the citizen, and vice versa.
However, what will we do with that, desperately needed, stoic "endure and refrain"? Can a man still rise above his own defeat, universal defeat? Divided, corroded, quarreling like this, will we find the strength to get up from the "chaos", to re-establish some kind of order. The biblical Job knew that everyone who saw him "killed" was frightened, but without fear, in his suffering, he already felt the foretaste of victory, the foretaste of freedom. Will this "what doesn't pass" of ours "pass" soon? Is there any hope?
Once a new priest came to the village, the village governor asked him to, as a man of God, testify to his faith and call for rain. Namely, there was a drought for a long time, and the governor sowed the field. The priest tried to justify himself, saying that his job is not witchcraft, but prayer, but in vain. In order not to alienate the vicar from the church, he thought of some saving solution, some acceptable promise and, in the end, he said what he thought was the most risky: "Okay, it will rain in two days!" Worried and depressed, the priest night begged to fulfill his promise, until at dawn he was interrupted by another villager, wealthy and influential, who had a new request: "I heard from the governor that it will rain in two days. It doesn't suit me at all, because I scheduled the celebration then, my guests will get wet. Postpone the rain for another day!” The priest agreed to this illusory move, not knowing what else to do. But in the afternoon, other locals came with new demands: "Don't make it rain before next Sunday. We are putting a roof on the house and we can't finish earlier," said one. "Rain means nothing to us if it doesn't fall tomorrow, our crops will dry up," said others. The priest listened to all these requests, and then calmly said: "My dears, when you arrange a day on which rain will suit all of you, let me know, and I will ask the Lord to send it to you."
Well, now, despite all expectations and customs of "warfare", the opposition mostly agreed this time. And although "everything is vanity, and trampling on the spirit", it is nice to see how the government despairs in the face of the upcoming elections. Because what "never passes" must pass once. It will rain, I believe.
The author is a member of the DNP presidency and an official of the DF
Bonus video:
