The Banality of Evil

Morality in Serbia has acquired a bad reputation, and now only children and madmen indulge in it. What else can one expect from a state in which the authorities are both legally and illegally - thus, doubly - corrupt? What else can one expect from the inhabitants of a country who maintain that smuggling is in the national interest? Such a country can be ruled only by those who are completely mired in the self-will of generalised evil. In Fragments from a Damaged Life, Adorno wrote that in a gangster society, only criminals could succeed! The unfortunate founder of the modern Serbian language, Vuk Karadzic, benignly noted that the national morality of the Serbs had become mired in the customariness of pure will: peasants simply liked to lie, and, the truth be told, also to steal!!! Collective consciousness in such cases operates on instinct, passion, opinion and witticisms. The power of custom rules individuals' lives by its "natural authority". Its trademark is precisely that dumb naivetè, that "pure desire" which has infiltrated all pores of society. Collective flourishing of evil, tabooisation of customs, credulous use of lies, theft, cheating, corruption, etc., are all spreading. The hyperinflation of evil has taken over the whole state, all the institutions of power and authority. Crime has become the principle of state, the deliric signifier of our economy, politics and, of course, international diplomacy. This can no longer be termed a crisis of morality, law, economy or politics. It is precisely the opposite, it is a fatal etatisation of customariness, an accelerated catastrophe of state evil.

Apocalypse Postponed

According to the Belgrade daily Blic (22 April 1997, p. 3), a paper specialised in the petite-bourgeois joy of information, a "Declaration against genocide on the Serb people" is to be made public soon, with the inevitable blessing of His Holiness the Serbian Patriarch Pavle. Of course, this initiative has been formulated by the wise heads, over sixty of them, respected personalities from the Church, the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, the Writers' Association and Serbian public and political life in general. This apocalyptic declaration is should finally reveal and unmask the great secret of the world dimension of Serbian suffering. As Europe is forgetful, and the New World Order uninterested, the Declaration first reminds the reader of the horrible suffering and injustice to which Serbs were subjected during the two World Wars. It goes on to say that "the exodus of the Serb people continues even now, at the end of the 20th century". This probably refers to the completely unprovoked (!) expulsion of Serbs, to that great (self)expulsion which took place after the Lost War for so-called Greater Serbia. Truly, how can the Western World calmly watch the expulsion of Serbs from their holy places, their historical settlements in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina?

The signatories of the Declaration appeal to the international community to condemn all past, present and future genocides against Serbs. Serbs are morally clean, politically correct, so that this appeal is intended to wake up the dormant conscience of mankind. Our concerned signatories (Milorad Ekmecic, Kosta Mihailovic, Niksa Stipcevic, Dejan Medakovic, Mihailo Markovic, Ljubomir Tadic, Zoran Djindjic, et al.) are no longer satisfied with eternal justice, the absolute Judgement of History. Very soberly, our pragmatic patriots demand the establishing of a new international tribunal of honour, which, in place of the Russell Court or the Hague Tribunal, could be called, for example, the Tribunal of St. Sava. This tribunal would have the task of introducing into international legal, diplomatic and political discourse a lordly, sublime and Apocalyptic tone. It would have no space or time for boring legal procedure. If the world is ready, the Serb mystagogues - those who initiate into the secret - can immediately make public the exalted vision of Serb suffering. Our prophetic voices, that aristocratic wisdom which bears the apocalyptic hope, will no longer tolerate the infectious haughtiness of Europe, the garrulous arrogance of the West.

The Extraordinary Fast

Any call to fasting, especially to an extraordinary fast, appeals to believers to find in themselves "deeper reserves of health". It is, therefore, not unusual that the Patriarchate has recommended to sick Serbia, tired of war, misery and poverty, a further abstention from elementary necessities of livelihood, and maybe even from pleasure. To those uninitiated in the ways of the Serbian Orthodox Church, it may seem strange, cynical even, that on the occasion of St. Sava Day the impoverished and miserable faithful are called to redoubled hunger. Once they hunger as citizens of devastated Serbia, once as the faithful of its official church. This appeal to total asceticism by the people, to a liminal temptation of existence, has been sent out by His Holiness the Serbian Patriarch Pavle. His appeal has come at the right time, as it will best be understood by those who rummage in dumpsters, hoping to find their salvation in the garbage. According to the official interpretation of the secretary of the Serbian Patriarch's Cabinet, Archdeacon Momir Lecic, only an extraordinary fast can save us from the evil which has befallen us! Blessed are the starving around the dumpsters, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven! After all, in front of God one should be simple, obsequious, sad and hungry. Merriment is the politeness of the rich.

Eucalyptus

Eucalyptus, n. Any of a genus of (Eucalyptus) of large, chiefly Australian evergreen trees of the myrtle family; widely used as timber, for ornamental purposes, and in the preparation of drugs, especially the volatile, pungent, essential oil of eucalyptus (Gk. eu - well - kalyptos - covered <kalyptein cover: from the covering of the buds).

The eucalyptus is the favourite plant of the loudest propagator of Serbian nationalism, academician Ljubomir Tadic. Our oral Dionysus knows what the real thing is: one should only cultivate that tree whose flower remains closed even after blooming! This secret of nature has been revealed by the sociologist Tadic. It is small wonder, then, that our zoological visionary likes the limelight, the frightening noise of the media. The public sphere is where one can most effectively hide, painlessly conceal oneself. This subject of eschatological discourse, this garrulous visionary, has been obsessed by the Belgrade Circle for years. His euphoric attacks have no end. (By the way, I have recently been accused of being the founder of anti-Serb mondialism: "Their ideological paradigm has been formulated by Obrad Savic"; Vreme, 1. February 1997, p. 32). What is the basis of the libidinal economy of this nationalist juggler? Why does he renounce with such largesse all other aims and purposes for the sake of Serbhood? The trick is that this political eucalyptus wishes to say everything precisely in order to say nothing. Tadic's public discourse is nothing but expression of gooseflesh, spasms and screams of a soul which must announce its cold lunacy. There is no semantics there, only mere gestures. No ideas, only frigid writhing. No meaning, only earthly excitement. No spirit, only mere breath and spasmodic mouthing.

Webmaster: Slobodan Markovic (twiddle@eunet.yu)

All rights reserved. Belgrade Circle Journal encourages the reproduction of material appearing on its pages, provided that the source and the author are cited, except in cases where this would constitute violation of copyright held by other organisations or individuals.