Those who do not put up with this system of corruption, hypocrisy and injustice have two choices - to leave here or to stay and fight for a better society. Bežania is massive. Preparation for escape as well. On the other hand, those who remain here for the time being, honor to individuals such as the brave and honest Aleksandar Obradović and the extremely brave and professional journalists of the few independent media that still exist, are either silent or carrying out a Twitter revolution. Virtual movements have no outcome in reality. I guess that should be clear to us. One body of excuses for this essentially passive attitude is that either none of the opposition members are good, or that things can never and will not change here. The second corps explains that here the government changes regularly every 10-12 years or that it is impossible to change the government here without external intervention. In both cases the result is the same - the deadening of civic initiative and activism - which, by the way, is in perfect harmony with our hymn in which we ask God to save us from our own fate.
Our school system is set up in such a way that quality and individualism are undesirable. Bad students, which we have produced, remain and rule. It seems that as a society we have come to believe in action heroes. In recent times, their place has been taken by superheroes. Unfortunately, they don't exist. Yes, even if someone thought that our president was a superhero, they were wrong. Except that he is not righteous, he ended up where superheroes never end up - in the hospital. Of course, now we can expect a media tabloid invasion with the aim of regaining the status of a superhero, the type that he survived something that no one else could, that he was thinking of his country and people all the time, and not of his health, and that he returned to us to would win the elections, because as long as he is alive and as long as he wants to, no one can beat him, etc. But let's leave all this for another time.
From a young age, we watch movies in which, on the one hand, there is a righteous man with extraordinary powers, while on the other hand, there is an entire system embodied in a set of villains and powerless and/or corrupt police. Villains rule, institutions are under their control. The righteous man knows how to fight with twenty of them, to carry out diversions, masterfully wields weapons. Superheroes can do all that plus they have supernatural powers. The film's outcome is almost always the victory of the righteous. The message of these action and superhero movies should be that even when we are alone and when our goal is truthful and just, we can fight for a better world. One should never give up the struggle and humanitarian ideals.
Scorsese compared the Marvel movies to an amusement park. Coppola went a step further and stated that "Marvel films are not cinematography because we expect from cinematography something to learn, something to achieve, some enlightenment, knowledge, inspiration". I would disagree with him there. Action heroes and superheroes were invented precisely to help us reach a very important realization - people who fight for justice are left to their own devices, and since in real life they do not possess supernatural powers and superior martial and weapon skills, that is, future if action heroes and superheroes do not exist, every fight for justice is doomed from the start.
Of course, we cannot change anything ourselves. This is why association is necessary. Association, again, cannot happen without personal initiative. Unfortunately, the reality is that we are rapidly running out of options, mostly due to mass departures. And we have been spinning in this vicious circle for decades.
William James, an American philosopher and psychologist, warned the American nation in 1897 when unveiling a memorial to the victims of the Civil War in Boston: "The deadliest enemies of nations are not their foreign enemies, but those who reside within their borders." And civilization is in constant need of being defended against these internal enemies. A blessed nation above all other nations is one in which the inhabitants, by their actions which attract no special notice, daily preserve their gift of being citizens by speaking, writing, and voting sensibly; by currently dealing with corruption; they are good-natured people; these are people who know how to recognize real people when they see them and who prefer to be their leaders over crazy party supporters and vain charlatans. Such nations do not need to wage war in order to survive". Therefore, citizens are obliged to protect their privilege to be citizens through their daily actions. It is the responsibility of the citizens and their duty to control the government. If they don't do it continuously, there is no government that will not resort to diverting public resources into private hands.
Freedom is a matter of choice - it is lost if we allow it and won if we choose. No one will give it to us.
The author is a professor at the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade
(Peščanik.net)
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