Morally degenerate conduct is possible only in a public space which is tightly controlled and where the difference between right and wrong falls under random categories. According to Nietzsche, if facts do not exist, there are only interpretations. Regrettably, this is the reason why there is a need today to point out Voltaire’s warning: “Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities”.
The political representation of the democratic, second-class citizens could also have made less mistakes in the last decades. The question remains however, if anything would have been strategically different today, given the power relations at the beginning (absence of the constitutional majority), even if because of our actions then we would still be considered naive and well-meaning.
I am skipping the discourse concerning our own mistakes, the estimates and advice of the first-class political analysts and experts that have always tried to frame the second-class citizens. They truly enjoyed proclaiming the loss of the political party that has always managed to win parliamentary seats and has so far won most of the elections, most recently the European, general and local elections.
Observing realistically from a distance, the biggest tactical mistakes seem to be divisions within the bloc of democratic (spring) alliance parties and the cooperation of some of those parties, weak in structure, with the political subdivisions of the first-class citizenry who have used this well-intentioned cooperation in order to strengthen its power and privileges. We are all to blame proportionally with the level of our naivety and the length of such cooperations. Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS) made such mistakes in 1992, Slovene Christian Democrats (SKD) in 1993 and Slovenian People’s Party (SLS) in 1996 and 2001. The forming of the Bajuk cabinet in 2000 was also a well-intentioned political mistake and much in the same manner was the formation of our anti-crisis government in 2012, together with the Democratic Party of Pensioners of Slovenia (DeSUS) and the Civic List (Državljanska Lista). While saving the state, impoverished by the first-class citizens, the latter were busy saving their slush funds, hidden in the state sectors, and trembling before the prospect of someone disclosing the money laundering worth one billion Euros for the Iranian terrorists. They were also preparing the insurgency.
The lesson of these mistakes is really quite meaningful. The well-intended cooperation of the second-class citizens with the first-class citizens always ends badly for the former. The use of the principle of “always being on top” is always the fastest way for a democratic party to fail. The road towards the normalization leads only through firm cooperation of all who represent the second-class citizens. This is also something that the first-class citizens fear the most and they therefore do anything they can to sow discord between the democratic alliance parties. The near future will show how much have we learned from the consequences of previous mistakes.
Given what was said thus far, it seems at first glace as though there is no escape ftom this quagmire. What can one do when the first-class citizens control almost everything and are prepared to use all means to defend their statuts? What can one do when faced with the volatile international environments and judging by the fact of who will win the competition of threatening others, with the escalation of degeneracy of the self-proclaimed elite? When the crisis of values is the one that is escalating the most?
The external environment will in the future have a great, although not a deciding, impact on the untangling of the crisis of values. The EU is still the best political achievement in the history of the old continent, but unfortunately the period of optimism is gone for the time being. Not only illegal migrations and the strategic disaster that is Brexit, but the considerable economic slowdown, new shadows of the Cold War and the growing tensions between the US and EU will be the main challenges. This also explains why the one-speed or multi-speed Europe isn’t on the agenda anymore, unless we talk of the reverse motion. We need reorganization and stabilization. An abundant supply of common sense and the statecraft. Apologists of European federalism are causing just as much damage as the direct demands for the abolishment of the EU. At the same time, this period of uncertainty is the best opportunity for countries like Slovenia that wish to assert themselves. The reputation of a country does not fall only under the political, but a strong economic category as well. Because of its small size and/or power, Slovenia cannot be at the forefront, it can however lead the way with suggestions on how to find the best solutions possible. The second Slovenian presidency of the Council of the European Union is certainly increasing our opportunities. Yet our actions must be quite the opposite of those in the previous decade when the obvious incompetence of the self-proclaimed elite to solve the political problems of our country, like the arbitrary dispute with Croatia, made us look ridiculous in the eyes of Europe. We should instead be proposing or co-shaping solutions for the common problems of the EU. Security, opportunity and future are keywords in the next period of European history.
The deciding battle of traditional values against the degeneracy and abolishment of the second-class citizens status will take place at home in Slovenia. While the national reconciliation, the positive discrimination and the evolutionary merging of elites on the basis of meritocracy still seemed possible some 15 years ago and the constitutional requirement of prosperity seemed as a common denominator of breathing properly, today any reasonable individual has lost the illusion that the first-class citizens will ever finish the transition in a civilised manner. It is worth mentioning that numerous rational members of the second generation of the self-proclaimed elite were until some ten years ago ready to lead a conciliatory and open politics, just like some of their predecessors in the independence period. The ayatollahs however never gave their permission for such a process and they severely punished every deviation by using the media and repression monopolies. In the years 2012 and 2013, they proved their readiness to defend their privileges and monopolies not only with the abuse of the rule of law and the stolen election, but also with violence.
Since they have previously been successful in using violence to defend their power, monopolies and privileges, a new political force at the extreme left has arisen out of this soil of banditism which instead of blushing, is proud to openly defend and glorify the crimes, dictators and the Yugoslav and Venezuelan way into poverty. And while the Social Democrats, their co-conspirators, until very recently never publicly promoted the crimes that led to the creation of the self-appointed elite, but approved of them from the party headquarters in a stolen villa, Levica never even considered that as a problem. Instead of coming down to Earth, the whole of Slovenian left-wing parties found themselves in the spiral of radicalism. Nothing is out of bounds anymore. This utterly morally degenerate conduct is possible only in a public space which is tightly controlled and where the difference between right and wrong falls under the random categories. According to Nietzsche if facts do not exist, there are only interpretations. Regrettably, this is the reason why there is a need today to point out Voltaire’s warning: “Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities”.
Everyone capable of looking past the everyday false reality presented by the regime media is aware that values in Slovenia are being threatened and we are heading to a breaking point. When the self-proclaimed elite uses all means possible to stay in power and defend its privileges, democracy seems to be at a great disadvantage. But only at first glance, accordng to history. Slovenia is heading towards a period similar to the one thirty years ago. Drawn into the bloody conflict for the establishment of the Greater Serbia on the ruins of bankrupt communist Yugoslavia, it looked like we would politically and economically perish in the Balkan powder keg. This could very well have happened if the helm of the nation’s destiny in those momentous times would have remained in the hands of those who had orchestrated the economic and moral bankruptcy of the former state by mixing ideological delusions and first-class arrogance. But it did not happen.
Slovenia today is once again entirely governed by the same and equally “competent” self-proclaimed elite as it was in 1989, especially in recognizing the historical dilemmas and challenges. It can stay that way and the fruits of the time, when the Slovenian nation at the Demos’ suggestion decided the only time in its existence upon its destiny and when its value system had been shaped, will wither away. Just like three decades ago, we can smash the chains of the second-class citizenry and liberate, as well as preserve the independent Republic of Slovenia for generations to come.
Two outcomes are possible. The first one foresees the victory of democracy. However in order to secure its victory, to free Slovenia and enable its full development, several measures must be taken:
- The elimination of censorship
The first condition for democracy to function properly is the establishment of the agora or a free public space, wherein arguments of different interests and political groups are essentially equally accessible to the voters. The struggle for agora is always and everywhere the absolute priority of the democrats.
- The elimination of the financial and economic monopolies
Public money is a non-existent category. There is only the taxpayer’s money, collected by political authorities in form of taxes and contributions and through financial and economic monopolies. The battle to purposefully use these means is the absolute priority of each democratic government. Just as it is the battle to eliminate all monopolies and establish logical competitiveness everywhere where this is reasonable and possible.
- The elimination of immunity for the first-class citizens
Establishing equality before the law for all is an absolute requirement for the normal functioning of the democratic state. In Slovenia, the rule of law will begin when Kučan, Rigelnik, Zemljarič, Janković, Jamnik, Golobič, Kocijančič and other “untouchable” members will receive exactly the same treatment by the Slovenian police, Public Prosecution and courts as the second-class citizens do. If the institutions will be unable to do so, the populace will judge the untouchables, as well as those who failed to do so.
4. The elimination of the privileges of the self-proclaimed elite
A truly democratic society cannot tolerate privileged pensions and positions and must therefore abolish them.
- The prohibition of totalitarian rituals
The resurrection of fascism, communism and national socialism or nazism is punishable by law. The educational system should teach and raise the youth by relating to them the whole and truthful historical facts and focusing on the reconciliation and the values of Slovenian independence which are at the core of the Slovenian nation and state.
6. The position of the fifth generation of their descendants
A prerequisite of the democratic government is the implementation of the constitutional foundation of Slovenia, saying that Slovenia is a state of all its citizens, based on the inalienable right of the Slovenian nation to have its proper statehood. Slovenia therefore doesn’t exist without the Slovenian nation. This is the reason why Slovenia doesn’t encourage illegal migrations, but prevents them and contributes to the international efforts to eliminate its causes. Slovenia puts the prosperity of its own people at the forefront, encourages fertility rate, helps the families and enables quality education for the young, as well as employment in Slovenia and success according to their competences. It also promotes and actively helps in the return of Slovenian expatriates to their homeland. Slovenian state is aware of the importance of defending European civilisation for a prosperous future of its children.
Janez Janša (61) is a Slovenian Prime Minister. Janša also led the Slovenian government from 2004 to 2008 and from 2012 to 2013. Biography of Janez Janša HERE.