These are those unfathomable geographies - I have an acquaintance who refuses to believe that Šavnik exists for over thirty years. Whatever information I give him as confirmation of the existence of a populated place, he just says - there, you see... There is no logic that such a thing exists, tell me honestly.
There are places whose position is much better in mythology than in ordinary geography. Because what do ridiculous numbers (population, facilities, factories) mean when compared to the glory that mythical status brings. For one Tumbston one does not wonder how many inhabitants there are. Similarly for one Šavnik - he doesn't wonder how many voters there are...
In recent months, Šavnik has turned into an unusual, some would say bizarre, festival of democracy. There is voting there every weekend, even people from other parts of Montenegro come to vote, a future tourist attraction is being born before our eyes. Imagine if someone offered a rich foreign clientele such a tourist program - ethnic villages, local food and - participation in the elections in Šavnik... They will forget about skiing in Durmitor and around Kolašin. People from the white world would take selfies next to the polling stations, the current three would be few, ten more polling stations would have to be opened. With fast food, and free internet, of course.
If you try to translate this essentially fun, even hilarious, story into serious meanings, depression is sure to await you...
The main message from Šavnik is that there is no state here. Everyone can, in one way or another, suspend the logic and presence of the state. At the same time, it is important to clarify that we are not talking about the state as a fetish of conservatives, but as a framework that makes a community possible and functional.
Similarly, when the deputy Knezevic, after the airport skit, announces the arming of the "family" (neolithic ethics) and self-defense (welcome to Dodge City), he says the same thing.
Can a community survive that kind of destruction?
The destruction we are talking about takes place at all levels - from Šavnik to the Constitutional Court. The situation is so comprehensively bad that it doesn't even matter who you consider to be the main culprit. This humiliation of the idea of democracy, the idea of the state, politics and the citizen is a joint enterprise. All other joint ventures stem from it...
At times, the matter begins to resemble the plot and all those immortal characters from "Đekna" and other dramatic texts Miodrag Karadžić. Admittedly, contemporaries do not have, nor can they have, the charm by which we remember the aforementioned TV heroes.
But isn't everything that takes place in wonderful Šavnik the wet dream of every true democracy - elections that never end. I can already see the titles of the future memoirs of the immediate actors - "Elections that are going on", "Elections of my youth", "How the election result changed"...
It's a question of when someone will propose it - if we're being honest, Šavnik should be the new capital. It is already the symbolic capital of today's Montenegro.
Which city more truly represents the current Montenegro? A ghost town, a place that only has a (glorious) past, a town that has nothing left... Except elections. That is why this election circus-feuilleton is at the same time a touching cry of a forgotten town. When these elections are over - whenever that will be - when every weekend Šavnik is not a mandatory topic in TV news, when will you hear about proud Šavnik again? When will a chip or stick factory open there too?
The other day, on one of the countless TV channels, I came across a great Western (one of the four greatest, if you ask me), "The Man Who Killed Liberty Valance". I recommend it to all participants of the Šavnik democratic race. They will be interested in what he tells Ford.
Or, what he said Njegos - What is Shavnik, and must be Shavnik...
Bonus video:
