How much hatred can a society tolerate before it collapses, one way or another? The deceptive dynamics of hatred - one moment seemingly marginal or exotic, and the next - unstoppable and omnipresent? How does this alchemy work, and is it possible to reverse and/or overcome it in any socially acceptable way?
I remember a great movie (Hate, Matthew Kasovic, 1995) - shot in black and white, the film is not only a (then) new and truthful image of the Parisian suburbs, but also an essay on hatred that foreshadowed many aspects of the reality and politics that would mark the time that was yet to come, with a different energy of rebellion and uncompromising social anger.
Today's Montenegrin film about hate should be equally innovative and cruel. And it should at least try to answer the question - how hatred, where it is given free rein, where space is opened for it, so easily and convincingly becomes the master of the game.
The Zabjelo Hunt for the Turks, everyday politics, matches, the street, even the school and the yard, everything is its stage. The highest church dignitaries do not hesitate to promote hatred, most specifically national, ideological, political hatred. And you will not encounter shame where it rules.
Woe to a country where hatred is so popular and sought after.
Who benefits from all this hatred?
Here and today, it is the most successful small business, the only activity that is constantly growing.
I remember the nineties well - and too well, unfortunately, but today's hatred is like a new strain of virus, even more severe and with even worse consequences. It seems more terrible, despite the memory of that time and the ways of hatred that showed the cruelest face of an already cruel world.
You have asked yourself many times, I am sure - do the haters and other servants of hate know that tomorrow will come. This is the time when such a question rings in your ears, like the constant refrain of a tiring song. And what is “tomorrow” for these haters of ours. I remember how some from the nineties began to be disgusted by hatred as soon as they crossed over to the other side,... Then, such people, it is natural, began to hate those who remember that they were once haters.
That we are becoming a society of hate is also evident in the fact that all the stories against hate that follow an incident seem unconvincing and false. In front of it, politicians seem like lead soldiers. It's as if hate always has a goal advantage, no matter what you do and no matter how nice an action you perform. No matter how you play, it's already in the lead.
This devotion to hatred is also strange. It's a bit of a vocation, and a bit of a craft. Technique. Look at the President of Serbia Vučić, a master of the craft: his hatred is always "defensive". Then people believe more quickly, they give in more easily. In short - the most powerful and most protected man in the country is constantly whining that someone is going to kill him. Only he is not. During that time he is pouring machine gun fire from all possible TV stations. A unique system of government, for sure. With naked hatred he magnetizes all the lowest and worst in a society. Endless mobilization of waste.
The hatred emitted from the stands at football matches is a story in itself, not without a touch of the already mentioned nineties, but also with much more, which was added over time and the unfortunate political experience of post-Yugoslav societies.
I don't know and it's not easy to imagine what a catharsis that would make all this we have on stage meaningless and disempowering would look like. Sometimes it seems to me that in order to work, that catharsis would have to be pure magic.
How will we be with each other when tomorrow comes? What self-deceptions will we turn into mantras of healing. Which, here, is always temporary. Only until the next historical “chance”, until the next carnival of hatred.
And most dangerously: hatred casts long shadows.
From which it is not easy for anyone to escape.
Bonus video:
