Over the time, parties have occupied the entire public space, and in times of elections, this ideological “guillotine” becomes even stricter. To think otherwise, to be rational, tolerant, argumentative means to be outside the political “streams” projected by the “minds” of the “catman’s” logic as Czech nobleman, Ceslav Milosh, defines it in his book “The Captive Mind”.
Author: Bardhyl Zaimi
Elections require “concussion”, participation, striking rhetoric, mobilization to make a political orientation visible. Elections require teams at all costs, as this is the only way that affects the nerve of the sympathizers, the followers who have already designed their “worship”. Sympathizers want slogans, disqualifications, words that sometimes strike brutally. At election times, it is more difficult to remain neutral, rational, modest, and objective analyzer of situations. This may in many cases appear and is evaluated as a greater “heresy” than the perception of each other’s teams.
Any attempt to see things from this diopter can aggravate the “criers” of the teams, because they do not recognize this view predisposition of the realities, which in no case can be limited to only one election cycle. Party militant time is measured by electoral cycles, with participation in rallies, with a “horizon” which is displayed by rhetoric of loud noises. The present and future of the militants is a slogan, a stickiness, a temporary rebellion that bears the mark of a party or a moment’s dissatisfaction, a dissatisfaction that seeks to vindicate as an absolute truth.
Militant time is an ideological urgency that knows only power regardless of the stylizations that may be embroiled. The time of the party militant is a moment of “explosion”, a moment of domination, a moment of crowd, which knows no other truths than that which absorbs it in the “trans” of the ideological hemispheres. The time of the party militant can be a hamburger or a folklore beetle. It can be naive blindness, but it can also be a “rebellion” to switch sides, to become more vocal and loyal to another option.
A party militant does not always wear an ideological jersey. He may also be a “Prometheus” seeking an ideological conversion as he has milked one of the “mother parties” earlier. The elections are a good ground for the next physical culture, the calculated attachment, and the calculations of the bank accounts it once had and wants to have again. In fact, party militants appear charming to these camouflaged militants not because of public opinion, but by their silence and hazardous attacks trying to create the next moment for their own benefit.
It is already known that during election times increases the impatience among people. In how many elections we have seen these “epic battles” that have annoyed people, brought down ideological conflicts to the family? Party ideologies do not hold account for people because they are regarded as figures, an amorphous measure through which you can ascend the ranks of power. This is the time of political duel that demands the irrational embodied in the militant. This is the time of urgency, bargaining and flexibility for power that is arrayed at times with soft rhetoric and at times with strong rhetoric.
Generally, at election time this picture can be seen everywhere in the Balkans. Even in Macedonia. Of course, this masquerade of elections is not a fatality in itself, despite the fact that it claims to keep everyone locked in this logic. Parties have their own accounts and interest groups as well. On the way to European values for which it is alleged it is impossible to exclude these realities. They are present because of the lack of democratic culture that stimulates a vicious circle in which other political sensibilities have long been suffering.
Over the time, parties have occupied the entire public space, and in times of elections, this ideological “guillotine” becomes even stricter. To think otherwise, to be rational, tolerant, argumentative means to be outside the political “streams” projected by the “minds” of the “catman’s” logic as Czech nobleman, Ceslav Milosh, defines it in his book “The Captive Mind”. And the argument for this situation can be taken a little further. Totalitarianism does not necessarily mean one, in countries without a consolidated democratic tradition totalitarianism can also mean plural, or as we are used to call “pluralism”.
Now with ten times from cultivated minds it is elaborated precisely this hopeless situation of a mentality that lives in the fog of political rage and predetermined schemes that promote mental cramp. All political parties, without exception, are part of this non-movement, of this political and social “catman” that only recognizes the limited scope of repetition of fatalities. It is in the logic of politics and democracy that parties aim for power. Nevertheless, it is unacceptable that the holding of power and the intention to be part of power to degenerate into repetitive, nebulous practices without any creativity.
It seems that power and creativity are two opposites. At least for the Balkan spaces. In addition, it is not so tragic that the existence of this political form that suffocates is limited into already experienced practices. It remains fatal that one cannot extend its view beyond this political “swamp” that keeps people in a position of numbering. Characteristic of mediocre policies is generalization, while in detail, in concrete policies, in concrete causes the distinction is made.
Thinking beyond these schemes remains a Sisyphus effort, but inevitable if we want to get into the value system being promoted by the EU. Europe is not just a slogan, it is a set of standardized practices that imply good governance, transparency, dialogue and uninterrupted cultivation of democratic life.
Bulgarian researcher, Maria Todorova, has an extraordinary book titled “The Imaginary Balkans”. It is a book that seeks to clarify the stigmatization of the region as a Western conception. One of these stigmatizations also holds the title of a chapter in this book “Down There in the Balkans”. To become part of Western values undoubtedly one must think beyond the schemes in order to overcome this gloomy “metaphor” which politics keeps it alive with its repetitions!