Later on local elections in Zaječar i To Kosjerić we have opposing claims of the government and the opposition: victory was declared by both sides. The problem is that both statements cannot be true at the same time. The government, of course, lies and steals - it's been doing it for 13 years, so it's nothing new - and there's no doubt that it stole the elections this time as well. As Rasa Nedeljkov from "Crta" said - the results do not reflect the will of the voters.
That circumstance, however, counts for little when it comes to the truth, and even less when it comes to the political order. Does this mean that truth is powerless?
Who determines what is truth?
In the old (philosophical) tradition, truth is defined as the coincidence of opinion and reality, that is, as the coincidence of reality and claims about that reality.
But people lie, as Dr. House said. When the supreme being says, for example, that the opposition cruised around Zaječar and Kosjerić in black jeeps and harassed people, that statement does not match what happened in reality. The Supreme Being, therefore, is not telling the truth. But the supreme being has no one to bring the truth and known rights, because the being has captured both the judiciary and the state.
Namely, the court is the instance that, in the case of a dispute, determines what is true and what is false, what are facts and what are lies. Witnesses, documents, direct and indirect evidence, forensics, procedures, all of this serves to determine the extent to which reality and claims about that reality match, and to differentiate between truth and lies.
Let's say, if the court (in a free political order) catches the highest holder of executive power in a lie that harms public order, and also steals (because whoever lies, steals) - he will be sanctioned. However, Serbia has not been a free country for 13 years, among other things because the judicial power is under the control of the executive power. The conclusion, from what has been said, would be that in Serbia the truth is not worth a penny, and that Serbia is not a country where truth and justice reside. And that is true. But not quite.
Political truth
There is also a truth that is not determined by a court of law, and it is more complicated than the truth that is determined as a match between reality and what is said about reality. Namely, we do not need a court verdict to know that the regime lies, robs, destroys individual lives and satirizes this country.
We will call that truth political truth and it rests on logic and careful observation of reality. We call it political because it is not a private truth that applies only to an individual. Let's say, the truth that I am genius, capable, the most beautiful and, in general, irresistible is perfectly fine as long as I don't endanger anyone with my genius.
Political truth, however, concerns the community. When I publicly claim that the regime of the supreme being lies and robs, including the being itself, that claim does not require judicial verification but a fight for the truth.
The truth is given.
And this is the key moment of this little philosophical excursion. The truth is not something that grows just like that, on the side of the road, independently of me as a citizen (therefore a political being), so when it ripens and falls away I just bend down to pick it up, shake the dust off it and bite into it (like when Adam and Eve bit into that apple; however, they got their apple, and we have to make an effort).
Truth, philosophers would say, is not given, but given. Truth is a task, it is always conquered. Science, for example, does not collect the truths scattered around, but rather fights to the death for them in order not to conquer them, then preserve them. On this level, a citizen is the same as a scientist: a being who fights for the truth. A scientist fights for the truth in a cabinet or a laboratory. A citizen through institutions (if there are any) or on the street (if there are none).
Therefore, we have to fight for the truth that the regime is denying us. That truth, however, says that the regime screwed up badly. If you harness all the money, all the means, all the thugs, all the media, with the discreet help of the police, to defeat the bare-handed people in two small towns - and do it by stealing and lying - then mostly everything is clear.
It may be painstaking, but it is better to be on the side of the truth than on the side of lies.
