Nowhere is the democratic nature of a state and its government more evident than in the court cases conducted against those people who have voluntarily changed their beliefs in the ruling ideology of their state and continued their lives as dissidents. In short, these are people who checked and replaced one belief with another.
Human history is full of such examples. But human history is also full of social conflicts that accompany the struggle between defending existing (old) and introducing new forms of belief in society. In this regard, the acceptance or rejection of new forms of belief always creates an era of "interesting history" which in a number of cases is - bloody.
So, it is a social struggle of various political or other groups for the foundation on which to build their own type of government, which is consistent with the ruling ideological consciousness in the state.
These ideological (belief) conflicts - and the testing of individuals, therefore, in this connection - create new energy and dynamics in society. They give society the basis for a different direction of development and growth. (Let us just remember Saul who a few thousand years ago on the way to Damascus converted to Paul and later grew to Saint Paul's or the almost monkish young Josip Dzhugashvili checked about a hundred years ago and grew up to Stalin.)
Both have significantly influenced the direction of development of human civilization.
From heretics to dissidents
In religions, defected (fugitive) members of their religious group, sect or organization (church, for example) are called - mainly until the 17th century - heretics. In modern - most often ideological societies of communism - runaway members of the believing caste are called dissident. But what is common to both (heretics) and (dissidents) is the very cruel reckoning of the authorities with them. (In Sofa lifts Antigone, The Theban king Creon sings “O"It is a place where no human foot has trodden/ and hidden alive in a stone pit". So, the ruler will punish the rebel against the central government (Antigone) by burying her alive.)
This was the case both before and after ancient Greece.
The modern era is in this sense much more subtle and monstrous in its cruelty than the ancient era. Heretics are (mostly) quickly killed, while dissidents are silently and long-term tortured, and "death" is natural and expected. (Just think of the Soviet gulags or Goli Otok, for example.)
So let's pay attention to modern liberal dissidents, who are closer to us in time and more socially “useful.” Because - some claim - we are already living in this “monstrous modernity.” But we still don't seem to see it clearly, nor do we publicly debate it.
Therefore, let us describe the modern liberal dissidents of the 20th century in the simplest and fairest way possible, so that we can more clearly see the value and depth of their sacrifice as a kind of legacy for the creation of a more just and upright future Montenegrin or any other similar society.
These are, therefore, rare - and therefore precious - individuals who knew how to step out of "their" lives and leave behind valuable experience, but also deeper cultural traces for the future of the people to which they belonged.
Let's list a few of the main characteristics of these people.
Modern liberal dissidents (renegades) are men (or women, although there are far fewer of them) who do not impose their ideology on society as their own revelation. So, they are rebels against dogmatic, cocooned authorities who do not create their own ideological or oppositional novum that should 100% make society happy. On the contrary. They are rebels whose only weapon is a critical word and a deep personal belief in the power of that word.
Some of these people are willing to make personal sacrifices and even suffer in prison for their faith in their publicly expressed thoughts and words towards the existing government.
The government arrests such people quickly, convicts them even faster, and locks them in the "damned courtyard."
And it is precisely in the atmosphere of such a "courtyard" that some of these detainees are able to build a new life, a new career, and a new biography.
For modern liberal dissidents, life in the “courtyard” and its silence can be a suitable environment for experiencing and understanding a new ideological world as real in relation to the world that the dissident brought into prison. I guess the cruelty of prison is the easiest way to open up these important ideological and life (political) questions. (There was a time when Njegos was a self-willed novice and "hermit of Cetinje" who, in solitude, came to a clearer understanding of himself and the great virtues of Montenegrin society.)
The doubt goes even deeper
The energy of the dissidents of the 20th century is multi-layered and difficult to stop. It springs up in the form of a spring in these people, although they are surrounded by a wall of silence. And this silence can be dangerous for external dogmatic authorities. That is why these hidden modern rebels are most feared by people of cocooned (dogmatic) consciousness in state power.
Modern liberal dissidents are particularly wary of seductive, populist ideas from life that are quickly and easily accepted in society. Their suspicion goes even deeper. Because they are also wary of old rejected and “outdated” ideas that know how to cunningly renew themselves and appear in society in a new guise and create chaos again. They are especially wary of ideas and social goals that come from the top of dogmatic authority, i.e. the Leader.
Modern rebels, renegades from power, are not called upon to engage in armed resistance, violence, street demonstrations, or even overthrow the ruling regime. No. They are samo sharp analysts of the practice of the existing government and - naturally - the fundamental ruling ideas that state practice imposes on society.
They stand somewhere between religion and politics.
However, one could in no way say that these people are martyrs or that their goal is martyrdom as a legacy for a personal saintly future and a place in the history of religion or politics. Quite the contrary.
There can never be enough of these liberal-minded political rebels. They are not even in the ranks of the political opposition. They are not even as advisors to any opposition party. They operate from the shadows and independently. They are similar to the Far Eastern sages who are passive builders of the ideas of life and who have mastered the art of waiting. They have “mastered” time by measuring it by themselves.
So, the political rebels of the 20th century are a kind of modern hermits.
These are the apostates whose silence is heard far away and who poisons the youth as the authorities claimed in the famous philosopher's trial in Greece 2500 thousand years ago.
Their motto was and remains I protest, therefore I am..
These are people who have descended into the "underground" world of well-known, ordinary, but unspeakable truths, where the rebel uses only practical facts.
Trial - puppet theater
A closed and rigid policy (dogma) does not tolerate any criticism. Even less betrayal within its own ranks. Moreover, if the rebel (dissident) is part of the high state or party authorities, his trial is prepared, directed, monitored and the outcome of the trial is decided from the highest echelons of government. The Leader always has the last word.
Political trials of modern dissidents are presented to the people by the media as the only possible legal and legitimate basis for the purpose of "defending" social values, the rule of law, the protection of individual freedoms and democracy in society. Naturally, this is a front behind which stands the preservation and defense of the power and personal authority of the Leader.
The court's decision on a rebel (dissident) is made before the trial even begins.
But not all these trials are the same.
Tyrants shorten the court procedure. (They make a decision quickly.)
Modern despots, even democratically elected statesmen, hold to slightly longer procedures.
But the result of both is the same or very similar.
It is important that the decision is read by an “independent” judge.
In the trial of dissidents, everything is allowed - even the lawyers - because everything is staged, like in a puppet theater.
The place of trial must necessarily be a courthouse, so that the people do not think of the court's non-objectivity or its illegitimacy or bias, as noted somewhere. Varlam Shalamov, a Soviet prisoner of war for three decades.
Trials of dissidents are necessarily secretive and take the form of blitz trials, a kind of (semi)war trial that is between a peacetime and a wartime trial.
Political trials of modern dissidents have a hidden and terrifying message intended for “their” people and are aimed at the ears and brains of the domestic public. This “judicial” message is generally hidden, therefore, behind the judicial robe as a mask for the manifestation of ultimate justice. But there is also deeper system, as he says in one place, to mention it once again, Shakespeare's hero.
Namely, by breaking the fate, and in not a small number of cases the life, of a rebel (dissident), the government, through an "independent court", emphasizes and cements its power over society. Colloquially, this could be most easily expressed in the threatening words of the government addressed to its people: Look, my people, how this rebel, who was at the top of the government until yesterday, fared, and here is what he is and where he is today. And how would you fare if you dared to rebel.
Frightening consequences
So, political trials have a terrifying consequence. They affect the future character of society. This simple conclusion was noted long ago by a great Nadezhda Mandeljstam, the poet's wife Osipa Mandeljštam. A i Emile Zola o Aferi Drajfus, has an almost identical observation.
By their depth, historicity, vision, goals and - most importantly - their civilizational mission, such trials can partly influence the formation of a new psychology of the people or influence the direction of changes in the spirit of a society. For the worse, of course.
So, trials of political rebels can and do change the mental health of a society, its courage, ethics, and who knows what else.
A concrete example.
A whole series of trials for a liberal rebel Milovan Đilas were typical political trials. They were oriented towards killing the spirit of freedom in Yugoslavia and we later paid dearly for that and are still paying. These were the Stalinist “Moscow trials” from the 30s applied on the soil of Yugoslavia. The consequences of these trials are still felt in Montenegro today. And the question is whether we are today - on the wrong side of history.
Let's conclude.
Rebellion and trial to the walking sage Since 2500 years ago in Greece, humanity remembers and learns about and from it today.
Rebellion and trial to a fallen angel from 1954, Montenegrin society remembers and learns about it and from it even today.
In both of these cases - and in many other similar trials - the consequences for society can be, and are, tectonic.
Collectively speaking, the trials of these people (modern liberal dissidents) are moving in the direction of an example of an individual's victory over the fear of authority. Any authority.
Bonus video:
