By: Dr Janez Remškar
As a senior citizen of Slovenia, a Slovene, I observe violence at every step!
I can start on the road! I drive a lot on local and state roads for work! As I take my time and stick to the speed limit, I get all sorts of nasty “warnings” – from lights, honking, to showing raised middle fingers!
Something similar happens at road intersections at rush hour, when drivers who see that traffic is not flowing drive into the intersection anyway, blocking the way for drivers driving in the other direction. This is followed by general honking and gestures to show the other driver how crazy he is!
As we watch the developments on the national radio and television, we saw a violent invasion of the programme council meeting, accompanied by banners with many hateful words on them! Recently, we had the opportunity to see again a similar intrusion of some media representatives into the main news broadcast!
Every day we witness the recklessness, obscenity, rudeness of some politicians who, in the role of speaker, are only capable of insulting, inciting hatred, discrediting, often even lying!
Something similar is also happening in other fields, also in healthcare, even in medicine!
Why so? Does violence produce results?
The answer is clear – YES! Let’s just look at the war in Ukraine! With the world in awe, it is quite obvious that with all the activity against Russia, all the world’s leading politicians have something up their sleeve! Because of their own interests! But people, husbands, wives, and children, are dying and we are all getting more and more cornered! Until when? Did we not have something similar before WWII?
Yes, violence pays!
What is happening on the roads shows our general impatience, the fact that each of us only looks at ourselves, we do not care what we will cause to the other! And the state, the traffic police, although this happens on a daily basis, does not react! They stand by the roads, where they are already visible from afar, but they are not at intersections at rush hour! I am sure that education, even with punishments, would bring about some changes!
It is not worth wasting words on the work of journalists. Many of them were and still are socio-political workers! They consider themselves the fourth branch of government, and they really are that! How else would it be possible for each election to bring us a new face, a new prime minister, a completely blank slate politically! As a rule, this happens with the support of the media, we get a president who is not a politician, but shows a lot of sense for politics and pleasing the old “socio-political” structures, which also grabbed a lot of property and can “sponsor” many things, including the media!
Why did the journalists of RTV SLO, who run Dnevnik, Odmevi show, the news programme, and their editors not problematise the “violence” of their colleagues? Can we imagine what would happen if a group of dissenters at RTV SLO, let me write from the “right”, did the same? What do you think Mr. Bergant or Mrs. Starič would report on their own initiative?
It does not even make sense to write about the work of “politicians”, who are not politicians, because they fall into politics by accident, with the mostly supportive, even independent media for the left-wing political option! I myself was a member of the first democratically elected parliament, then the assembly, and I can say that despite the great tensions between the representatives of the old political structures and the new representatives of the democratic forces, we maintained etiquette and were aware of the limits of respectful speech! Now it is more than obvious that only “violent” politicians, MPs are known! Why? Because they have little knowledge of the subject they are talking about and struggle to argue their points of view! It is easier to be rude, provocative, and have a greater media coverage! Why so?
As I already wrote, something similar is happening among us doctors! Conducting morbidity-mortality conferences (these are meetings where complicated patients are discussed, including those with poor treatment results or those who have died) is made difficult because each of us takes everything as a personal attack! Unfortunately, in many places we are not yet capable of a discussion in which there would be no accusations, discredits and thus self-aggrandisement! Yes, this is violence too!
So where, when, and how will we reverse this trend that is harmful to us all? The media play a direct and important role in this harmful event! It is just that it sells, that viewership and readership are as high as possible and that earnings are as high as possible. But only doctors are analysed with earnings. Why! Why has a similar serious analysis not been done on the current Prime Minister’s salary? Could we possibly have seen this exact analysis and commentary on RTV SLO?
I will stop here! Slovenians we must shut down the violence because journalists have not been able to do so, at least until now, due to their own interests!