Food, energy and life
Galloping price growth accompanied by inflation, expensive food and energy, along with classic social problems, we must admit, is always a good motive for collective actions such as protests. Although they do not receive so much media attention and therefore we hardly experience them realistically, more serious think-tanks, such as the Carnegie Foundation for International Peace, carefully follow the protest dynamics around the globe, of which, research shows, there are quite a few. The masses are protesting starting from the Middle Eastern Israel - the government's desire to reduce the powers of the constitutional court, the Central European Czech Republic - the price of energy and the liberalization of the visa regime for Ukrainian refugees, France - pension reform, Germany - the sale of arms to Ukraine and the fear of the impact of such government policies on the standard of living, Italy - expensive bills, bad utilities, and sometimes climate change cause the anger of citizens. The Greeks, partly justifiably, were provoked by a tragic railway accident, which, in addition to the human factor, was also motivated by the chronic neglect of that transport sector.
Systemic carelessness can easily lead to tragic consequences. Hungarian teachers protest against low incomes and related problems, even the parents of the children support them, and we know that in general the relationship between teachers and parents is far from ideal. It is similar with teachers in Portugal, their anger is caused by the rapid rise in prices, while inflation and stagflation disturb their quality of life. In the Netherlands, farmers are angry, the regulation of fossil fuels represents a fear for jobs and, we would say, bare existence.
Protests - come on please
Apart from Albania, where the protests were against corruption and poverty, and Serbia, where the right-wing protests were against the normalization of relations with Kosovo, other countries from the regional environment do not protest, do not get angry, and have no need to do so, since everything or extremely good, or it landed in the other extreme, for which no collective action seems to be able to provide a solution.
More developed countries are rebelling, it's a citizen's revolt, we'll use a term from geology, of quite strong magnitude, at least numerically, and it ranges from some 15.000 to millions, for example in France. The underdeveloped countries of Southeast Europe, which, elementary economic logic dictates such an assertion, already have a lower standard of living, and therefore feel the negative consequences more directly and more tangible, do not find the need for protest activism. There are certainly many reasons, but one of the most important is the fact that the citizens of those countries spend so much time in fruitless discussions, demons of the past, irrational fears of the future, that the most tangible individually and socially - economic and social issues - are almost not perceived as a relevant social issue at all. . We would say, with perhaps a hint of cynicism, but also with a touch of sadness, that the political content was almost completely wasted in meaningless places, and people were left completely passive and powerless for more serious matters. Although they feel the consequences of negative economic trends, they fail to present their real problems and then their legitimate demands in the political arena.
It is up to the people, of course, but, without wanting to exculpate the lack of their involvement, in modern societies the demands of individuals are articulated through intermediary mechanisms, mostly of the political type, which have proven to be chronically ineffective. And even if there is someone who understands existential problems and sympathizes with them, there is hardly anyone who could offer a sustainable and relatively humane solution to the problems of existential and social type that, as we have seen, are encountered and reacted to by a good part of the developed world .
Between the beans and the cake
While it was once thought that the left had a monopoly on social issues, over the past thirty years we have witnessed the systematic erosion of that political paradigm. And the recent defeat of Sanna Marin in the elections in Finland testifies to the comprehensive political decline of the left, especially in Europe. The social component of relations in society, which the left itself has sometimes selfishly appropriated, politically speaking, is slowly dying and not since yesterday. The possibility of the left was first questioned with the fall of the Berlin Wall, which, according to Fukuyama, marked the "end of history" or, more understandably, the universal triumph of liberal democracy and the market economy over other political systems. And so it would be, admittedly far from the desired ideal development of society, but enough for the essential ideas of the left, such as social justice, to be labeled as transcended or unachievable in new social circumstances. Wild transition, partnership or partnership capitalism showed the reverse side of democratic changes, but the opinion about the inevitability and even the normality of it prevailed.
The Left has also deconstructed itself, showing itself to be completely inauthentic in many matters related to authentically living social reality, and has been metaphorically labeled as the saloon, yachting, fake philanthropic, Gucci and Rolex Caviar Left. Articulations of social justice in society, which experience the greatest polarization in this aspect, remained only in the sphere of mental nouns. They became empty titles, of a completely abstract type and in many aspects devoid of any meaning, and were reduced to populism and the culinary symbol of distributing portions of beans to the masses. And the masses protesting all over Europe, if they didn't want cakes, to use that royalist metaphor, they would still want something much more tangible, a fairer life, at least slightly better working conditions and safer and more efficient social solutions.
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