"We need to let the Beast out of the cage..." A sentence that, ominously, could stand at the beginning of some kind of horror, the end of which - when the Beast got out of the cage - is not hard to imagine. In horror, the person who utters this is usually a "madman" or "evil genius" who has come up with an idea to solve the world's problems - with the help of the Beast.
And what does that mean? It is not difficult to decode the metaphorical expression: the Beast is trouble, the Evil that is caged (therefore, pacified), but if you let him out of the cage - things change radically. You know what: the dead will lie in the streets, clouds of smoke will press the cities, wails will be heard to heaven - because, the Beast has been released...
This metaphor (Beast) owes its popularity to the biblical, more precisely, New Testament text. In the marvelous metaphor of a fluid and enigmatic text such as "Revelation", in the part where Babylon is recognized as "Secret, Babylon the Great, the mother of all whores and abominations of the earth", we find the verse "The beast has seven heads and ten horns... The beast that you saw it was and is not, it will come out of the abyss…” In order for the beast to be defeated, in short, it must first be released from the abyss, or the cage. So, there is no doubt that we are in the zone of someone's mystical-religious raptures. Or - radical irrationalization of public discourse, which is exactly what is happening in Montenegro.
Because the last person you would expect to make such a statement, and this type of rhetoric, is a CERN scientist. And, I must admit that it is completely incomprehensible to me that the ex-Minister of Science, respected Sanja Damjanović, said this.
It would be quite natural, even expected, for one of the national bards to fall into this kind of mystical amok, or some shrill spiritualist, or one of these shrieking analysts... But a person who is in a place where the deepest secrets of nature and the cosmos are unraveled , where the first moments of time and space are reconstructed, where science reaches until recently unimaginable layers of reality, acts as an extremely unconvincing candidate for such a statement.
You definitely don't expect her to use these fairy-tale registers when explaining reality (even if she did it as a politician, not a scientist). Because, that metaphor is deeply manipulative and misleading, which may not be a problem in literature, but it certainly is in politics.
The last weeks bring more and more diverse but also more explicit escape into the arms of the irrational. Then I guess it's not surprising when you hear the latest messages from President Đukanović.
"All means are allowed". (I guess because the beast was released from the cage.) What (all) means? Did Machiavelli get off on the wrong foot this morning?
However, there were moments in that TV interview where he resembled that old pragmatist, rational politician. It's a pity that he didn't impose such an attitude on his party, but he judged that this patriotic carnival suits him...
Again, it should be noted that not all forms of irrational public action are based on a mystical impulse. It can be completely streetwise... Not only is the newly-minted opposition struggling, the authorities are having a hard time as well. (Both learn from us.)
We also had an interesting plot in the simmering war within the government. The usual and normal meeting of the Prime Minister with the President tried to be presented as - treason or conspiracy. Petty matchmakers know nothing else.
Of course, they also know that the matter will be clarified quickly, but in Montenegro, no lie goes to waste, never dies. All lies still live and work here... The more convincing and clearly denied a lie is, the more secure its long life in Montenegro. Like mental zombies.
And one "beast" (albeit domesticated more than 20.000 years ago) became the star of the region. The story of the disappearance of a girl from Kotor that scared us all had a happy ending. Happyend with the dog's signature.
It's sad that you expect less and less of that from people. And no Beast is to blame for that.
Bonus video:
