All citizens are equal before the law (isonomy). Except for those who are, as he would say Orwell, more equal (Essenes, for example). Citizens are not equal in anything else. There are smart and less smart citizens, hardworking and lazy, educated and uneducated, those who have money (a convincing minority) and those who don't (the vast majority), there are those who can do everything with their hands and those who have two left, skilled and less skilled, sensitive and less sensitive, and there are scoundrels in the bodies of citizens and citizens who - we'll see what that means - defend their civic substance at all costs. The differences are huge.
Where the differences are greater, the unhappiness is also greater (there is Serbia, for example). Where there are less, life somehow goes on (Norway, for example, is still not doing badly). This text, however, will not be read by those in question because they are not good at reading, they are not educated, they do not have the opportunity to access the text, and even if they did (more or less everyone has smartphones), they will not understand it: the sentences are too complex, the vocabulary too complicated, the theses abstract. But they, as equal before the law, have the right to vote and their vote is worth as much as the vote of any other citizen. (Let's leave aside the paradoxes of democracy here. Suffice it to say that Churchill observed: the most persuasive argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.)
Milosevic's brain and inflation
For example, an elderly lady (formally highly educated) from a small provincial town, once disgusted with Milosevic, Seselj and Vučić, informed the signatory of these lines that Milosevic was, in fact, killed and that his brain had been removed. Who killed Milosevic? So they. Who are they? So they. And what will Milosevic's brain do to them? To study it. Why would they study Milosevic's brain? He answers with a counter-question: and whose will the others? When asked about the student movement, he naturally answers that they are all hooligans, beaters and terrorists. So your grandson is a thug and a terrorist? And no, he didn't. So why not when he participates in protests? He does not destroy the city. And who is destroying the city? The terrorists, he says steadfastly, stole everything they could get their hands on. You mean Vučić and his people, they are in power? Wasn't Vučić to blame for that big inflation, the lady continues (and slyly digresses from the topic)? Didn't he steal the money? Well, he was in power then (says the signatory of these lines). Yes, Vučić was in power... So when was the inflation, madam (I ask)? In 2005, the lady fires as if from a sonic cannon. And what does he think about Kosovo? All the best. If Vučić had not released him, we would have been left without Kosovo. From whom did Vučić liberate Kosovo? Well, from Shiptar. And from those of Đinđić. And how does the lady live? Never better, Vučić pays her pension regularly, it's not big, but she lives.
Of course, we can endlessly cite such bizarre examples. But that lady has been going to the polls regularly until now and will continue, as long as she can move, to go out and vote for Vučić.
Photo: Velimir Ilić/FoNetWhose heart beats harder for Kosovo: Student who wanted to study Miloš Pavlović in front of the Serbian Parliament, June 28, 2025.
A slight change of perspective
But not all of our less educated fellow citizens are exactly at this stage of deception. And it is precisely to reach them. The question is - how?
The answer is more difficult than we believe: a small change in your perspective. In other words, in the campaign for power, we will have to tell the less educated citizens some of what they want to hear. Is it demagoguery? Certainly. Is this the same as what Vučić is doing? Undoubtedly. So we are the same as Vucic? Well, that's the catch. We didn't.
Logic in politics is valid up to a certain limit. After that comes an experience for which the game of premises and conclusions does not apply: the premises are clear (we say the same as Vučić), the conclusion is correct (so we are the same as Vučić). Except that he holds power and speaks from the position of one who has incomparably greater public influence than we do. In order to confirm what we are, we have to win power. In order to win power, we must reach those who believe that Kosovo is the heart of Serbia. And how many are there? A lot. An overwhelming majority. If we start from the assumption that we are talking about stupid people, we will never win power.
Logic doesn't work here either. The slogan "Kosovo is the heart of Serbia" is nonsense. And now what? Stand in front of a person who believes that Kosovo is the heart of Serbia and tell him that he is wrong, start explaining to him (patiently and without malice) how Vučić did everything to hand over Kosovo to the Albanians for the sake of staying in power and looting, and that Kosovo is lost. Is it true what you said? Of course. Will you win power that way? You won't. Why if we are telling the truth? Because truth is not a key ingredient in politics, and it is certainly less nutritious than emotion. But if you don't win power, you won't do anything. You will not save the truth. You may end up heroically drowning steadfastly in your own principles, but you won't change anything.
Photo: Zoran Mrđa/FoNetStudnetski Vidovdanski gathering. Belgrade, June 28, 2025.
Howl to the sky
Readers of "Vremen" clearly see where this text is heading. The student movement suffers from criticism stemming from principles, outrage over Jelena Pavlović's speech in Kraljevo is at a high level (and what? Did she say something wrong?), and painful sighs over her image and work are rising to the heavens.
All right, we're all going to sing in disgust and understandably, as usual, we're going to be right. Are we going to conquer power in this way, shuddering and sighing heavily? No, we won't. We can, with forgiveness, erase our outrage, our principledness and our truthfulness. So what do we want? The answer: that Vučić should not be in power and that the destruction of the country should stop. A mature idea, almost as if it was articulated by white papers. Will this, otherwise normal desire, oust Vučić from power? Of course not.
Extraordinary circumstances, as the immortal Machiavelli would have said, call for extraordinary measures. In this case, the extraordinary measure means stepping out of the intellectual comfort zone and trying to understand that truth and principles are not on the front line of the fight against the monster that is the Vučić regime. A monster is an indeterminate form. A monster can take any form. Neither truth nor permanence applies to a monster because truth is what it says is true, a certain shape he keeps it until the moment when it is no longer useful to him and he takes on a new one. Adolf Eichmann was a monster because he had no permanent form. He could have been anything: a humble man and a master killer, a quiet neighbor and a pure criminal mind, a person who wouldn't even step on an ant (let alone a Jew) and a precise accountant who sends millions of people to their deaths. Principle and truth did not belong to his world except in so far as they could serve him to justify what he did, or did not do. In order to remove Eichmann, it was necessary to change the government. American planes and Russian guns were needed against Hitler. Against Vučić's regime, giving up self-fascination.
Photo: Tanjug/Ana PaunkovićSNS rally in the Arena: Supporter of Aleksandar Vučić
A citizen vs subject
The student movement takes over a part of Vučić's rhetoric and plays on his weariness, on the endless, tiresome phrases that have started to circulate in the place, on the fact that he is unable to speak the truth and govern the country. At no point did the student movement question the connective tissue, the cluster of republican values that it incorporated into its activities: the fight against corruption, free elections, the rule of law (pensions are not given by individuals, but by the law). And unlike those who are closer to ideas than concrete people, the student movement listens to what people say.
Therefore, according to the principle of equality before the law, all people are equal. By the same principle, everyone is a citizen. But the quality of their citizenship status varies dramatically. Since ancient times, a citizen has been defined as an individual who is aware of his civil rights and his civil obligations, that is, as a kind of subject who thinks about his own place in the community.
This determination is not passed by the majority of citizens of Serbia. Their political subjectivity is weak and falls into subjection (subject not as one who freely and self-consciously decides his destiny, but as one who is thrown (project) below (under) of the master who issues orders to him, he is topic (French) prisoner). A citizen does not need a leader, a tutor, a priest to guide him, because he is free. A subject needs a leader, he needs a master to show him the way because he is not free to choose it himself. The slave needs help to break free. Vučić and his crew need a subject in order to continue their epic robbery of the land and theft of souls. Hence the destruction of the educational system. Hence the media padlock.
Therefore, if we want to change that, we have to change the government. That is why the rhetorical agreement that Kosovo is the heart of Serbia is a necessary step towards opportunities freeing subjects from the need for a leader. Yes, Kosovo is the heart of Serbia, but there is also something in the school. Does this mean underestimating the citizens who believe in fictional worlds, in the fact that the earth is a flat plate and that some kind of cloth has miraculous effects? In the political order - no. Hearing what people say means understanding what to offer them and how. Even if it is self-inflicted (as Kant would say) ignorance remains ignorance. In order to change that, we need to win power in the name and with the help of people who do not know.
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