The spirit of the fiddler's sensibility resistant to the challenges of modernity

Pointing out to your people the facts that clearly say that even "we" are not sinless is a salutary remedy. Criticism addressed to one's people is one of the most important foundations and the beginning of the (spiritual) healing of a society

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Photo: Shutterstock
Disclaimer: The translations are mostly done through AI translator and might not be 100% accurate.

In the spiritual vertical of a nation, the elite plays a first-rate social role. It formulates value goals (guiding ideas) and works to direct society (state) in the direction of its perception of the future. Even if they are few in number, the elite has a crucial influence on people's consciousness and the state of mind of a society. (One Montenegrin politician finely explained the role of the elite in society with the role of "a grain of hypermanganese which - when added to a basin of water - gives the water color".)

Therefore, the elite significantly influences the direction of the spiritual orientation of society. And not only spiritual.

1.

The spirit of the elite is represented on the public social stage primarily by politics and politicians. They are the extended arm of the elite. As a tandem (elite - politicians) they are in a kind of symbiosis, ie. they live from each other and for each other. In this way, the elite presents its vision of the life of society through politicians, striving to emancipate the people in its desired direction.

Here, the question of the type of government that should revalue society from one value state to another naturally arises. In other words, the question arises of the "quality" of the elite and the "means" they use to achieve the set goal. In this sense, democracy proved to be a (partially) efficient and somewhat fair means of solving social problems. Thus, democratic government has proven to be somewhat more efficient and fairer than other types of government (despotic, authoritarian, unitary, centralist, ideological, etc.).

But it is not easy to get to the construction and continuous development of democracy and the liberal type of society in this regard. Because it (democracy) is not only a procedural-legislative issue that comes or is imposed on society by laws from above. On the contrary. Democracy - like any other form of government - springs from the spirit of the people. This is why we rightly hear that "the people have the power they deserve".

2.

At the level of practical leadership of the people's spirit, the elite is crucial. She can direct "her" society in various directions. First, it can guide society towards modern societies. Second, society can mentally (ideologically) block and direct it to "Godov's waiting" (S. Beckett) of something that will never come. And sometimes, on the other hand, the elite can orient the (third) society towards the myths of the past and reveal to (their) people the memory of their lost happiness, for which the neighboring, surrounding nations are most often to blame.

For the last 100 or so years, if not more, on (our) YU premises, on the third premise, the elites have most often built a dangerous narrative in "their" community whose happiness was allegedly "stolen" by the surrounding, bordering peoples. With this, the "elites" created the basis for future ideological conflicts and large-national pretensions, which most often ended in war.

So, looking deeper: the elite can destroy social development, even politics itself in a community. And when that happens, everything is allowed in society because society is not "tightened" (Petar I Petrović Njegoš). Then "šešelj" appear in various historical periods as mushrooms after the rain.

The twilight and collapse of politics means that everyone can be everything and have the main say on anything and everything. Then the politicians "crouch" under every (Montenegrin) karst. This step backwards is first and most easily seen in the example of youth and young people. They are the litmus-paper of the intellectual, political and moral decline of a society. (This layer of society is the most politically controversial and conservative. And the most dangerous, when it gets hold of power.)

3.

For this reason, and in the interest of the (liberal) future, work on the creation and development of democracy in a society is an emancipatory process that can take a very long time. For decades.

That process ("moving forward") is an internal issue of every society. But this process is very vulnerable. He knows how to slip into his opposite very easily and quickly. The modern world, including the Montenegrin one, is full of such civilization slippages. Especially since the elite is a perishable commodity. It easily slips into populism, avarice, or any other similar detour that the political authorities plant for it. And they (the elite) - by chance - find themselves on that very path of their love of glory, their deposited signature on the giro account of the budget. And of his imagined place in local and wider history.

These detours and individual weaknesses of the "unwanted elite" (Latina Perović) usually publicly justify themselves with the platitude that "the people are always right". It is a sign of the moral dullness of the elite and the hiding of the "elite" behind the backs of the people. (Because it is logical to ask that if the people are always right, then they don't even need an elite, i.e. smart people.)

4.

A real and responsible elite does not think about themselves and personal glory. First of all, she should, courageously and hard, create an alternative to her government. No matter what kind of government it is. In the words of a (deceased) journalist, "nothing is good that could not be better". Therefore, the creation and existence of a quality social alternative is the "sine qua non" of every society that strives for progress.

In this regard, a very important question is what is the basic social task of the elite in order to make society more advanced? This "dash" is all the more important considering that the people are almost never right in politics. Especially in turbulent times. Except (in part) in the French Revolution from the beginning of 1789, when in the spirit of freedom, fraternity, harmony and equality, the people gave priority to freedom in relation to the demands of material well-being, i.e. of your stomach.

5.

The next key task and importance of the elite, including the Montenegrin one, is directing society towards the public and continuous presentation of the ugly side (exclusively) of its face and its people. (Communists called it self-criticism. But they have been criticizing since Plekhanova gave an ideological sign by which they discredited her.)

Pointing out to your people the facts that clearly say that even "we" are not sinless is a salutary remedy. Criticism addressed to one's people is one of the most important foundations and the beginning of the (spiritual) healing of a society and the assumption of its emancipation.

Let's give one example.

It is considered that the (great) German people seriously doubted the ideas and practice of fascism only in the mid-70s of the 30th century. (So, only about 70 years after the Second World War.) Namely, that's how long the primary emancipation or awareness of the people who were infatuated with fascism lasted. In the era of fascism, the people were brought up as a "civilization" that spread death to all non-Aryan peoples in Europe. But only in the mid-XNUMXs, the chancellor of Germany Willy Brant he had the courage, intelligence, and morals to show his public the ugly face of his people. He knelt in front of the monument to the fascist victims committed by ("his") German fascists. With this, V. Brant opened the way for the democratic and liberal development of German society. Help also came from across the Atlantic. He was soon awarded the Nobel Prize. Today, Germany is what it is.

6.

Let's add one more dash here. This is the significance and importance of journalists as a key link between the elite and politicians, on the one hand, and the people, on the other. Because the people need to be accurately, clearly and timely explained the guiding ideas of the elite and politics. Struggle and searching for the (right) word is the first and most important task of a journalist.

In relation to all that has been said, the point of view of the elite is important.

7.

The elite has its own perspective on social reality. But a corner that must be equally separated (distant, distanced) from both the people and the government. The elite must always be morally, intellectually, developmentally above both. In other words, the task of the elite is to be critical of both. (The elite must never fornicate with the people or the government. It has been said.)

For the Montenegrin elite, this "dash" is all the more difficult because educational, traditional, ideological, family and every other form of education of the people in our country is at best "palanački" (R. Konstantinović). The spirit of our elite is dominantly the spirit of the fiddler's sensibility and range. That spirit is traditionally resistant to almost all challenges of modernity. (Except for that "modernity" that brings quick and huge earnings, and to which mostly young people are inclined.)

Therefore, one should know how to accept some modernity. But some can also be rejected.

8.

What's more, to make the pain worse, the spirit of modernity is often considered by our elite to be an a priori evil. Montenegrin spiritual tradition has a hard time adapting to the challenges of the modern and the new. Not to mention the speed of individual and social emancipation. (Probably because we overslept ("chewed" - M. Djilas) or we were not touched and "swept" by some European spiritual waves such as humanism, renaissance or enlightenment, for example.)

Next. Modern education of the elite and rich international experience and application of other people's knowledge is the "ticket" for social success. On the other hand, the elite must know the depth of traditional (Montenegrin) society. All with the aim of the necessary connection of external and internal civilizational achievements. (We already have a useful instruction - "General Property Code" V. Bogišić.)

9.

The next important "hyphen" of every elite, including the Montenegrin one, is its influence on individual reflection and the speed of acceptance of new scientific knowledge. This modern human ordinariness, the late Todor Baković marked it as "severe Montenegrin stress". Therefore, the necessary change of belief should be mentally acclimated and elevated, and not experienced - it is stressful.

Normally, the speed of take-off of Montenegrin society is limited by the international environment. (It is about the application of primarily economic standards and innovations that are owned by civilizationally higher societies and cultures, and whose price is usually expressed in US dollars.)

Briefly, let's connect what has been said.

10.

The practical power of the elite is enormous. But the power is not in itself. Its strength "in the market" is expressed or represented through - it has been said - politics and politicians. They are the extended arm of the elite. Because every elite has its politicians, just as every politician has its elite. Those politicians who build their own path of life and vision of their society are rare, like Winston Churchill or Charles de Gaulle for example. Great politicians-statesmen are a rarity. They are not easy to create. And for that creation, sometimes the so-called great weather and great historical events.

So, to the valid elite - as well as to any great football player, Maradona for example - it's not easy to come by. On the contrary. In the Montenegrin tribal history, the deficit of the elite at some time was expressed in a proverb that read "their strain hurts". (The proverb was used in those cases and times of the tribal organization of Montenegrin society, when some brotherhood or tribe did not create or had an elite (so-called smart people) who knew how to represent, represent, defend and develop the interests of their community.)

11.

More or less, all Balkan political elites in the XNUMXth century and a few decades later are similar. They directed societies towards the "revelation" of the past, towards destruction, towards revenge. In this way, the "elites" cleared up some of their "scientific", "literary" and who knows what kind of doubts and stresses of pre-Kosovo and Kosovo, Bjela and Zelena, Partisan and Chetnik and numerous other unresolved accounts and historical debts.

In the absence of building liberal institutions for these problems, under “Tito's shinjela" even before him, and she could not bring forth an elite better than she was. (There are few liberal-oriented dissidents here, like in the Czech Republic or Poland, for example.)

Ultimately - and seen from the level of the current social surface - it is about playing with and abusing the "elite" with national emotions in the people that erupted in the form of hot springs after the (self) collapse of communism. This fun "banality" (D. Kish), brought us and continues to bring us to the edge of the abyss. If she didn't push us out of history, which is easy to get out of, but hard to get into.

12.

Let's conclude.

The totalitarianism of both communism and nationalism is the opposite of a civilized (self-critical) spirit. Because it is the spirit of populist wooing of the people, usually for the sake of quick and personal power. The "elite" with such a perception leads the people directly to ruin.

It is likely that the absence of individual freedoms in the XNUMXth century in various (Montenegrin) and other regimes (absolutist, unitary, international, hybrid) destroyed the code of moral values ​​in the people. In the spirit of the "elite" it is (generally) clearer and first to be seen.

And without justice, morality and freedom, there is no successful development of any society, not even Montenegrin.

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