By: Jože Biščak
No, these are not memories of past decades that occasionally return as a melancholy whisper after lying on bookshelves for a while. No, it is not observing a balloon until it is so high you cannot see it anymore. No, it is not throwing rocks into a deep well and waiting for a splash. It is much more than memories on bookshelves, than waiting for time and space to do their thing, or like an echo from a well. These are things that hurt because they were never written, never passed, and were never said out loud. The perpetrators have never been punished; vitriol oil is still not washed from the bodies of innocents. Therefore, the crime is neither acquitted nor forgiven. And it probably never will be, because it is so extensive that it will take several generations before it becomes just a note in the history books.
Socialism is like the deadliest cancer: it controls the organism, plunders it, and in the end picks it all up. But the most frightening and astonishing detail of this totalitarian ideology was its ability that truth and justice never found their place in society, as citizens were forced to live in lies. Those few who knew how to build a defensive wall around themselves and were not flexible enough for the system were either expelled or killed or deprived of a normal and peaceful life – a reminder to others if they would not obey the Party. The authorities, with their political police, made sure that they were literally erased from historical memory. It was a complete control of the past, present and future. But as life always finds its way, so does truth. There is no dictatorial regime in history that could easily destroy the truth and its traces.
Slovenia has had to wait 30 years since independence for two key books to see the light of day: Jože Možina’s Slovenian schism and Rado Pezdir’s Parallel Mechanism. The authors reveal the nature of the regime with facts, the books are a reminder of the evillest nuances of socialism and an echo of the horrible moans of the past. Their evidence is so indisputable that the still-living criminals and their ideological successors were rather silent until that fateful Utrip show on national television. But when Možina brought up Dražgoše and revealed to a mass television audience one of the myths of the revolution built on lies, the transitional left was completely taken aback. As predictable, they did not challenge any of the facts mentioned in the show.
They are very afraid of the truth
One cannot believe how bloodthirsty their “proud successors” are frantically defending lies. This is not just an inability of self-reflection that moral human beings are capable of, or a circus performance of ever-vigilant fighters, but a fanaticism built on utopian promises and lies. Therefore, their thought processes have a negative attitude towards reality, they are not capable of living (which is true of leftism in general) a life of real living beings; their miserable lives are one endless war against the truth. God-fearing people say they are very afraid of the truth.
The fight against communist orthodoxy will obviously be a long one. And it should be noted that every vote of honest and good people counts here. You do not have to be Možina or Pezdir, you do not have to write a monumental book or have an influential media reach. Be it big or small, everyone must use their own channel. Smaller centres of influence, such as social media posts, letters to editors, family reunions, or a pub company are also important; maybe even more than one might think. Realise that anyone can be a person who influences others and passes on what has been trampled and silenced so far. Start this moment; let your voice overpower the cries of the rebels who led you like a flock of sheep for many years with kitschy communist iconography from Dražgoše, go further with your voice than ever before.
And if you have not read the books Slovenian Schism or Parallel Mechanism, now is the time. You will no longer get up from the couch the same.
Jože Biščak is the editor-in-chief of the conservative magazine Demokracija, the president of the Slovenian Association of Patriotic Journalists and the author of the Zgodbe iz Kavarne Hayek, Zapisi konservativnega liberalca, and Potovati z Orwellom.
