Target Practice for Fascists

The Tito Society in Sarajevo is composed mainly of older citizens who support Tito's efforts at anti-fascism. (Tito died in 1980) The Tito Society believes that the national Parliament in BiH absolutely MUST ban fascist political parties and fascist organizations in the country. They are resolute in demanding antifascist legislation right away.

I haven't seen much in the newspapers that actually tries to define fascism, but I think it's important that people can recognize the difference between free speech and hate speech.

I've been in Bosnia for 6 months, thinking on my own about this. Here is where my thoughts are now.

It's important for all states to have a national consciousness and culture. This develops over a long period of time and is the product of various conflicts over religion, class relations, and property rights. Think of the history of France, Italy, Germany or the US. Culture is constantly changing. And as science and technology progress, new opportunities are presented and people take advantage of them. It leads to new thinking processes, new outlooks, and with it changes in what citizens consider possible and preferable. This is normal development.

However, fascists aren't always comfortable with new ideas. They hold onto the idea of a national consciousness that is unchanging. If science is in conflict with their beliefs, then science is mistaken. The neo-Nazis are a perfect example of this kind of thinking: while DNA shows that Jews and Germans are 99.9% the same, they deny the science and hold to the idea of a German master race. Fascists will divide people into groups according to race, religion, or political views. They find the mingling of different people intolerable because integration can weaken (actually change!!) their way of life. Fascists will deny opponents freedom of speech or assembly to serve their higher goals of dominance and separation. Fascists believe that it is better to liquidate opponents through physical force (ethnic cleansing--such as the call to ethnically cleanse Kosovo and Bosnia) than accept them and live together in the same society.

Where does the thinking go wrong?  Fascists are mistaken in their distinction between instinct, archetype, and reality.  Instincts control behavior.  But certain unconscious forms of understanding exist which control our perceptions.  These are archetypes.  They are primitive/primordal and spiritual forms of "intuition" which are important determinants of our psychological processes.   They are the product of family life, culture, generations of influence on a people.  We don't all hold the same kinds of archetypes/stories.   For each of us, life is basically about the integration of contradictions of different archetypes in our psyches.  That is reality!  This struggle over what makes intuitive sense is hard and complicated and messy, and most people deal with the discomfort of "difference" and get on with their lives; others prefer to take an easier road.  

The fascist is at the extreme end of the spectrum: The white survivalists in the US who lynch gays or interracial couples and who can't bring themselves to consider humanity are denying reality..incapable/unwilling to sit with the contradiction of different archetypes.

Fascist states proclaim a particular ideology based on archetypes (the German "Master Race" or the neo-fascist idea of being "God's special messenger") and with crude force try to change reality to conform to this image.  Nazi extermination camps and burned out Muslim villages stand as examples of this behavior.  

In contrast, free and liberal states recognize many archetypes and consciousness and people in them converse and negotiate in order to create room for all.

Good luck to everyone who is trying to build a civic and civil society

The Situation Today

One small boy holds a picture of Tito and wears a Partisan cap with red star. His parents are part of the Tito Society, an organization dedicated to the memory of Josip Broz Tito, the communist head of Yugoslavia who stood up to the Soviets and refused to allow Yugoslavia to be dominated by them and who led the world anti-fascist campaign after WWII.

In another place in Bosnia, another boy rides his parent's shoulders, hearing pro-Serbian extreme nationalist rhetoric: "For Serbia, Kosovo is life.  

This newspaper article was written by the Minister of Police of the Republika Srpska, a PART of Bosnia. Imagine if the head of the FBI were telling US citizens of Mexican descent that they need to come to the defense of Mexico, against US foreign policy interests. That is essentially what is happening here.

Both boys live in Bosnia & Herzegovina.  As teenagers, what can we expect?

The political history of BiH is one of coexistence and conflict of 3 major religious and ethnic segments:  Catholic-Croatian, Muslim-Bosniak, and Orthodox-Serbian.  The religious segments go back as far as the 11th century with the division of Catholicism into Western and Eastern Orthodox and with the islamization of a part of the Catholic community under the Ottomans (1463-1878).  Religious cleavages evolved into ethnic and national cleavages.  It was a process of history.

Until the 1992-95 war, the people of the 3 religious segments lived in small homogenous neighborhoods and villages but among each other.  Somewhat like a patchwork quilt.  This ended with the war which was about one segment claiming territory from others.  Under the leadership of nationalist/fascist military and political leaders, ethnic cleansing, military conquest, intimidation, and destruction of homesteads served to create larger homogenous ethnic communities. 

The physical and psychological trauma of the war makes it extremely difficult for the construction of a new nation-state.  For very understandable reasons, this is not yet a country in which people identify very readily beyond ethnic lines.  Political parties are almost entirely religiously oriented, whether or not the citizen actually practices Catholicism or Islam.  It feeds further nationalist/fascist thinking.

It is my impression that the Bosnian Serbs basically ignore the fact that they live in a country called Bosnia and Herzegovina and proceed as though things could change at any moment.  They might be independent or part of Serbia.  In any town with Muslim and Christian children, there is strict segregation of schooling.  Each have added religious training to the curriculum, making it less attractive for integration.  The populations just don't mix much at all.  In 2008, I don't see much progress toward the establishment of a modern civic state, and it sometimes feels as hopeless as the Irish Catholic/Protestant; Israel/Palestine; German/Jew;  US white/black stalemates.

Everyone Loves Tito

Tito posters, keychains, graffiti "Long Live Tito!" and of course, the Tito bar with a WWII jeep parked in front.  The photos are from the inside of the bar.  No joke!

Getting To Know The Cops

AND BEEKEEPERS. Carol talking bee viruses with fellow Montenegrin pcelar.

The Gedeon sisters established some very meaningful relationships with policemen! Including the time Carol just blew off the policeman's order to pull over, only to be pulled over down the road by a slightly more insistent cop! Her crime: in Montenegro, one must drive with headlights on at all times. She denied knowledge (if you know Carol, no surprise there) and then denied having any money. Which was true. Her 16 euro fine was first reduced to 10 euro and then she was let go.

In my case it was in Croatia. We were looking for the city of Ploce. The road sign pointed in one direction, so I followed it. About 5 miles later Carol's compass indicated that we were going in the wrong direction (this was after she finally figured out whether red or white points N). I agreed. So we turned around. I got back to where I started with the sign and asked somebody how to get to Ploce. He pointed toward the other cars, so I followed. Through construction sites, road pits, you name it. Then I get pulled over by a cop who accused me of driving on a road reserved for local residents only. Didn't I see the sign in Croatian indicating that this was for residents only? Did I drive to Croatia JUST to use this road? It's my fault that I didn't know that there was a 35 mile detour to get to Ploce.

Carol got out of the car and asked what was wrong. I made the mistake of saying, "He wants $75." The cop bellowed, "The law states that this is private road. It isn't what I want. That is the fine." Blah, blah. I told him I didn't have $75 with me, asked him if he would escort me to an ATM. He said to follow him. Just before town, guess what. He pulled me over again and said, "I'll let you go."

You know what, at no time did either cop write out a warning ticket.

Balkan Colors

Here are some photos that my sister Carol took on our 2 week tour of the Balkans.  The cafe life in Sarajevo, ferry to Korcula, our nightly dinner of squid, and Sarajevo legs

Outside the Mosque Walls

The women pursue their pleasures.

Begova Djamija (Mosque)

Here is a good way to see the most important mosque in Sarajevo - the Begova Djamija.

On this Friday the mosque was overflowing and men prayed outside in the courtyard.