By: Gašper Blažič
If we were to review the content of mainstream media in the past week, we would get the impression that we are in a civil war. According to these same media outlets, it was initiated by Janez Janša. Yes, you read that right: according to the MSM’s belief, Janša is the one who ignited the civil war, rather than, for example, the government that arrogantly abolished the Memorial Day for the Victims of Communist Violence. Suddenly, that no longer seemed important; what mattered was merely the ability to attack the pre-selected opponent, the “prince of darkness”.
Perhaps the problem lies with us Slovenians, who apparently have not managed to break free from the old mentality that allowed differences only at the level of the SZDL. We had “pluralism of self-management interests”, where problems were nicely resolved through self-management interest agreements (SIS), ensuring the “unity of the nation”. And if someone stood out too much, they had to be cut off, as the late communist interior minister (and Türk’s award recipient) Tomaž Ertl once said. Recently, we have seen how this kind of “glajhšaltunga” works. If someone loudly speaks the truth about the naked emperor, the media apparatus must initiate an action plan for the “unification of the nation”.
However, this story is not about Partisan-Home Guard disputes – far from it. It is about the victims of totalitarian systems, the crimes that were never punished, the numerous Slovenian men and women whose burial sites are unknown. They do not exist in official records. If the nation somehow unified in a reverent attitude towards the victims of the occupier during the Second World War, the victims of the post-war rulers are deprived of that. Under the influence of decades-long indoctrination, the majority of the public says: “They deserve it.” And it is precisely this kind of totalitarian damage (according to Justin Stanovnik) at the core of the civilisational question that prevents ordinary divisions, as seen in any democratic space. (Inter)Party disputes can be found everywhere in the Western world, but nowhere to the extent of genuine politically motivated hatred, where someone would be deemed worthy of violent death simply because they are, in their conviction, a “Janšist”. And this atmosphere genuinely hinders any normal development of Slovenia, which in the early 1990s served as a beacon for many countries of the former Eastern Bloc but now remains a pale shadow of these same countries.
So, do we have a communist government in power again? A casual observer would agree with that. However, Golob’s “anti-fascism” is, in reality, just a defensive reflex that still works well in our social environment. Let’s be honest: all the ideological constructs that accumulated between 1945 and 1990 were merely legitimising the regime, which was essentially more managerial than communist. The concept of “socialism” was interpreted as a victory over nature, as the direction and distribution of products among people (for example, by regions). And it quickly became apparent that the utopia of a classless society where state institutions would no longer be necessary was just that – a utopia and nothing more. After all, even the Yugoslav managerial dictator Josip Broz Tito did something unimaginable in 1971: he visited the Holy See and met with the Pope (now Saint) Paul VI, the global leader of the “state enemy no. 1”, which stood out particularly in the “opium of the people” category. While the authorities were merely “feeding” the people with clichés about self-management, they themselves developed a so-called parallel economy, with the UdBA or SDV as its carrier. In fact, the way of life for communist officials was not much different from that of the classical capitalist managerial class – current and former.
That a person like Dr Robert Golob can assume the position of the most influential politician in our country is undoubtedly a special phenomenon. Although we are not alone in this on a global scale. In today’s new issue of Demokracija, you can read an interview with the author of last year’s very well-sold book on the cultural war of the so-called Forum Sao Paulo – it also addresses election fraud in Latin American countries. In our country, this system is perhaps much more refined due to the exceptionally well-developed public opinion engineering. As one of the Slovenian scientists recently sated in a private correspondence: “The immense power of a few needs the ignorance and greed of the majority. The intellectuals who know have been seduced by the magical sound of the sirens.” Of course, this still does not explain last year’s electoral phenomenon, when the originally democratic side failed in everything they had worked for. However, it is a confirmation – just like in 2011, when Zoran Janković suddenly became the most popular politician in the country, claiming he was a manager temporary working in politics – that immoral conduct is not an obstacle to expressing support for someone. Of course, until the immorality of the ruling politician “hits us” in the wallet. Just yesterday, on the Demokracija twitter account, we also published photos of articles from February 2001, when, on the verge of a personnel purge in Eles, we highlighted for the first time the controversial role of the then young Doctor of Science Robert Golob. Twenty years later, he became the Prime Minister, even though we publicly exposed his misdeeds multiple times. But the majority of the public was not interested, as the allure of the “emperor’s new clothes” was too strong, and most simply wanted to enjoy the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
However, as it has happened with all “new faces” so far (as a former politician Karl Erjavec once said: “New face, new mistake”), reality has caught up with this government as well. It seems that no managerial clique has ever become so intoxicated with power and triggered reactions, which they perceive as a conspiracy against their (authoritarian) “good intentions”. The elite currently ruling us is partially aware that they actually have no concrete content or programme to show, except, of course, plundering. And anyone who might hinder them in this endeavour is immediately declared a class enemy, and the propaganda apparatus becomes as aggressive as a swarm of wasps when defending the “revolutionary” legacies. Well, perhaps it is just a coincidence that one of the state secretaries responsible for energy bears a last name that signifies her vulnerability (see VIDEO). But this is just one of the symptoms of a failed management that drives the company into bankruptcy and greedily fills their pockets with what remains. “Let justice be done, though the world perish,” as the ancient Romans would say.
Is this a civil war? Perhaps. But if consider the civil war that the newly elected President of the Slovenian Parliament (then known as the Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia) Dr France Bučar stated in 1990 had ended with the new multi-party composition of the parliament, it is necessary to add that this civil war is the result of the communist revolution, the aim of which was to bring the communists to power, of course, by establishing a totalitarian and absolutist rule that extinguished the essence of communism itself. Only their fabricated anthropology remains, according to which human dignity has no inherent value, and each person is only worth as much as they are useful to the ruling managerial class. In other words: throw it away after use. And the current ruling elite is approaching the moment when their godfathers will discard them…