"When you create an education system tailored to the needs and goals of militarization, then it is a kind of special war that you are conducting against the future of society. We have serious studies that show that for decades our schooling has been in the function of a warrior model of socialization (…) The rigid and authoritarian way of functioning of schools only favors the birth of peer violence, which is largely a response to such and such way of functioning of schools. Rather, one could and should talk about a disorder in the behavior of institutions, rather than a disorder in the behavior of students."
The results of research by Aleksandar Weisner, an international expert on prevention, are frightening Nasil and conflict resolution, he states in his study Militarization of childhood and armed violence adolescents (Center for the Study of Social Development and School without Violence, Novi Sad, 2024). Scary, but for someone who has been living in Serbia for the last ten years, and has preserved some common sense, not surprising. All, of course, we know what is happening in the country, svi we are (except for the hypnotized, anesthetized, uninformed) watched how the clique usurped the institutions, destroyed the state and carried out sociocide (murder of society), and how it cuts down individuals who get in its way. But when what we know and what we see is reinforced by scientific research and permeated by scientific discourse, even the first-hand witnesses cannot hide their astonishment. How else to react to, say, undeniable statistical data that "Serbia is the first country in Europe in terms of the number of cases of mass murders and the number of victims in those mass murders committed in the last ten years, in relation to the number of inhabitants!" (p. 30). In addition - which is not a common case in scientific works - the book, which is full of statistical data, reads like an exciting novel, because Weisner not only writes economically and cleanly, with the least possible use of technical terms, but very successfully manages the "narrative flow", combines passages and dynamizes the text, and does not shy away from irony and restrained humor. Weisner knows that you can't do without numbers, but he also knows that numbers are not everything: without interpretation, they are not enough.
The key words of Weisner's study are violence, adolescence, militarism, authoritarianism, weapons. They are the cornerstones of this text and a kind of framework for these researches.
When asked how to present him, Alexander Weisner seems a bit confused. "I am, for example, a conflict expert", he says, "but there is no such profession in our country". He graduated from the Pedagogical Academy and, of which he is particularly proud, worked as a teacher. He is the founder of the organization and the author of the "School without violence" program. He has a master's degree in political science and a master's degree in communication. He holds a doctorate in peace and human security studies. This multidisciplinarity is explained by the fact that conflicts are the most complex and demanding form of behavior. He taught the course as an assistant professor Peacebuilding and Conflict Recovery in post-graduate studies at the UN University for Peace, and at the Institute for Peace and Dialogue in Switzerland, he holds a course Conflict Analysis Tools and Techniques. Some of his students are employed in UN missions, members of the governments of various countries, university professors...
"WEATHER" What is the militarization of childhood?
ALEXANDER WEISNER: In the case of Serbia, it is a multi-year state project implemented by the Serbian Progressive Party. It is not enough to say only that it is the Government of Serbia, because informal power structures are also at play, primarily the military-industrial complex managed by private individuals. Institutions in Serbia have been destroyed to such an extent that the everyday life of all citizens depends on the interests of a group that represents a parallel system of power. Even when they are in the positions of public servants of the most important institutions in the country, they rule based on the interests of that group, which is very militant. We can see this on the example of former ministers of defense and police and their private business connections. In a theoretical sense, militarization and militarism imply the organization of the entire society for the purposes of war planning. It is a public policy and strategy of the government that sees preparation for war as a normal, desirable and most important social activity to which all segments of society are subordinate. In such a society, the values of militarism - centralization of power, hierarchization, discipline and conformity, combativeness and heroism - are especially cherished and they take over or dominate the national culture, education, media, religion, politics and economy. Militarizing society means imposing on citizens the issue of national security, but not human security, as the most important public interest and priority. In order for this to happen, it is necessary to militarize the entire civil space, language, gender identity, family relations, philosophy of life, collective memory and of course, the education system. In my works, I particularly deal with the issue of militarization of childhood, i.e. the ways in which strategies of indoctrination of children and young people are applied in a society and what are the consequences of that.
You want to say that public and private interest have become unrecognizable, and that the entire structure is managed by the party in power, and against the interests of the citizens of this country?
The state is always governed by the party or parties in power, but it is a matter of morality and responsibility to conduct public policy in the interest of all citizens, and not to use state resources for robbery or illegal enrichment of individuals. In Serbia, we even have a case of a mixture of a captive state and a mafia-state. This means that even members of the ruling party who are MPs or government employees cannot control and do not have full insight into the parastate structures of godfathers and relatives who "tunnel" public funds or budgets. Serbia is at the top of Europe according to the index of the degree of income inequality, inequality of distribution of goods or distribution of economic wealth. While the richest fifth of citizens in Europe have 5,1 times the income of the poorest fifth, the difference in Serbia is 9,4 times higher. While this social and material stratification of society has been happening intensively in recent years, the owners of the military-industrial complex and the government are trying to create such a state in the country that all citizens are obsessed with issues of national defense and survival every day. Then huge investments in the army and enormous allocations from the state budget for the security sector seem logical and necessary, unquestionably, to the citizens.
In one place you wrote that our education system looks like a form of special war against Serbia. In other words, the militarization of society begins at a young age of future citizens...
When you create an education system tailored to the needs and goals of militarization, then it is a kind of special war that you are waging against the future of society. We have serious studies that show that for decades our schooling has been in the function of a warrior model of socialization, or as Dubravka Stojanović explained - the teaching of history is more pre-military training than science. At the same time, the school has not been offering the right answers to children's developmental needs for decades, even on a formal level. Despite various changes, the kind of school we have is essentially inadequate for dealing with the problems of living and the dynamics of changes that are the most burdensome and the biggest challenges for children and young people. The rigid and authoritarian way of functioning of schools only favors the birth of peer violence, which is largely a response to this and that way of functioning of the school. Rather, one could and should talk about a disorder in the behavior of institutions, rather than a disorder in the behavior of students. I have also witnessed this as a teacher. The creators of the key reforms of the education system in Serbia in the last ten years are the president, a lawyer by profession, and the ministers of the police and the army, a political scientist and a business manager who graduated from the Military Academy of the University of Defense. In the last decade, the school in Serbia functions as a key institution for the cultivation of militarism. I would like to paraphrase Svetomir Bojanin's idea that in school, single-mindedness begins as the violence of the authorities, and ends as a concept of living.
What exactly do you mean when you say they are the president, and the ministers of police and army, key creators "reforms" education system in Serbia?
The law and practice previously mandated that innovations in the education system come from educators, the profession and science, the educational council, the board of education... that the justification for introducing changes should first be checked through pilot projects and experimental programs and departments... Unlike the former rules and protocols of the education profession, dual education was introduced in schools by the president in agreement with foreign investors, and the initiative to introduce defense and security classes in high schools was launched by the Ministry of Defense, after analyzes by the Sector for Civil Defense and defense preparation, that is, because, according to the advisor of the then Minister of Defense, the Minister of Defense considered this topic to be very important and he designated it as a priority issue. The creation of the curriculum, the content of educational materials, as well as the planning and execution of classes is not under the authority of the Ministry of Education, but rather the Ministry of Defense. At the end of February 2021, the president of the state and the minister of police launched an initiative that textbooks for the Serbian language, history and geography can be made only by the state, and the initiative was explained in parliament by the minister of police, not the minister of education. Even the Union of Police Employees questioned Serbian language and literature teachers about who was responsible for the introduction of the novel Dorothy into the curriculum.
You believe that all armed violence can be prevented. Tako, after all, reads the first sentence of your book. But how is it possible to prevent armed violence if the whole system is, as you say, focused on fostering armed violence?
It is necessary to explain in detail the phenomenon of behavior such as armed violence or mass murder, in order to understand the mechanism of prevention, which the space of the interview does not allow. In short, societies that implement strong militarization and militarism are faced with this problem. Except for North Korea, but let's put that aside for the moment. In order to commit an act of armed violence, it is necessary to prepare and use a lot of resources and spend a lot of time. At every step and every level, from personal and family to the broadest social, it is possible to do effective prevention. So, even when it comes to an individual crime, such as a mass murder in a school, such a crime has a strong incentive in numerous systemic and institutional entities. Serbia is not the only country where more and more rigid laws are passed, according to which children are punished for violence at an ever younger age and more severely, and, at the same time, the most important and huge resources of society are invested in the application of an ever wider spectrum of violence against children and young people, while the institutions for the prevention of violence are systematically devastated. Militarization and militarism encourage individual armed violence, both among children and adults, especially if it is a multi-year state project. Demilitarization and demilitarism are prevention.
You were there before the mass murder. "Fishmonger" publicly drew attention to the very disturbing signs that indicated that disaster might occur. Such an attitude is directly opposed to the laconic claim that crime in "Fishmonger" he could not predict.
I did my doctorate in 2017 on the topic "Primary and secondary prevention of armed violence among adolescents in Serbia", because it was already clear to me that we were heading towards the first case of murder with a firearm at school, and that until then we had only avoided the first case due to lucky circumstances school shooting- and I wrote much earlier. Disturbing indicators of a large increase in violence among children and young people were especially clear after the corona virus pandemic, and we as a society have continued to develop conditions that encourage children and young people to engage in armed violence. Entertainment experts who persistently say in the media that no one could even dream that such a thing is possible in Serbia should not be given much space in the media, nor should they be given the opportunity to work on prevention programs, because their expertise is obviously questionable. Do they think that the increase in the number of murders committed by minors in Serbia by 225 percent in just one year is a natural disaster?
On the trail of this disturbing information, you draw attention to the very problematic behavior of state institutions like the Republic Institute of Statistics (RA), but also of certain ministries, which provide the public with information that is, according to your (mild) in words, confusing. Do you think that it is a question of methodological failures?, on incompetence or intentionality "tuning" data?
The subject of my research was juvenile crime and youth safety. The absence of relevant and reliable official statistics on this, even when it is the most serious crime, cannot be accidental, and the reasons can be numerous - from the concealment of cases, incompetence, lack of interest, lack of interest... And the problem here is not only the statistics of the RSO, but also the reports and data presented by the judiciary and police departments. For example, according to the official data of the RZS, in the municipality of Palilula in Nis, with a population of 73, not a single convicted minor was recorded in three years, while in Požarevac, which has a population of 000, there were 75 convicted minors in the same period. Even in some of the municipalities, for example Vranjska Banja, Trgovište, Crna Trava and the mentioned Palilula, in three years no minor was recorded who was convicted of any criminal offense, while in the same period as many as 000 minors were convicted for crimes committed in the territory of the municipality of Pirot, which has practically the same number of inhabitants as the mentioned four municipalities. And then, based on such statistics, researchers, meaning the scientific and professional community, uncritically conclude that juvenile crime is on the decline, and such conclusions enter the national long-term strategies for youth and the reports of the ministry, Eurostat... Total breakdown of the entire chain of systems that should provide data, monitoring, analysis and understanding of the problem.
In the book, you also criticize the attitude of the scientific community towards data presented by institutions such as the Higher Public Prosecutor's Office...
That's right. Here is an example of why. In the report of the Higher Public Prosecutor's Office, published in 2024, it is stated that the number of murders of juvenile offenders increased by 171,42 percent in one year in Serbia. However, by carefully checking their statistics, anyone can see that this is a 225 percent increase. Everyone can see that, but no one cares. How is it that none of the researchers in Serbia announced that the number of murders of juvenile offenders increased by 225 percent in one year? And these are data without the number of victims in mass murders in May 2023. Therefore, the attitude of the scientific community towards this problem is also very problematic. How will we deal with the prevention of violence against children and young people and violence of children and young people, which includes self-harm, if science completely ignores the life problems of young people? I will give another example. From 2021 to March 2024, the Science Fund of the Republic of Serbia financed or started financing exactly 300 selected one-year or multi-year scientific research projects selected in several competitions organized by the state. Of those 300 scientific-research projects, financed almost exclusively with funds from foreign loans or foreign donations, there are only nine projects, or 3 percent of those that in some way thematically relate to children and young people. By the way, one of those nine projects relates to the health and social position of children in the Bronze Age, and four projects relate to the development of identity and identity politics.
The approach to conflicts is, you write, one of the key competencies. Which approach do you suggest and why??
Scientific approach. Science has so far provided us with enough knowledge for peaceful and constructive behavior in conflicts. Even the most complex and traumatic social conflicts are full of development potential. History, as well as other social sciences and humanities, have taught us for centuries that social practices, structures and relationships as they exist today in Serbia lead every society to a deeper and deeper crisis, for the solution of which the special social capital of the society is decisive - the capacity and competences for the society to solve deep crises, tensions and conflicts in a constructive and non-violent way. Serbia cannot be said to have built and accumulated this capacity in the course of history. The institutions that should provide it are deeply divided, marginalized and corrupt, democratic practices have collapsed, moral codes have been stigmatized, and the value of the legal order has been humiliated and denounced. Considering that the national history is full of violence and there is practically no positive example of an earlier society in Serbia that managed to solve a major political-economic-social crisis in an institutional, democratic and non-violent way, there are no role models and examples of accumulated knowledge in the democratic, constructive and non-violent resolution of such challenges even in the domestic tradition.
However, after three months of non-violent protests that are ongoing throughout Serbia, it could be said that this current movement is the largest, most massive, longest, and yet also the most constructive (probably also the most creative), and that because of all this, it also carries the greatest democratic and emancipatory potential of any other social movement that existed in the history of Serbia. As such, in 2025, for the first time in the history of Serbia, he could ensure that the severe institutional crisis is resolved and fundamental social and political changes are carried out by raising the Constitution instead of arms. The problems that Serbia will soon face are not even on the horizon of the competent institutions, and they are not solving the existing problems either. Indeed. It is part of my text from two years ago.
In the book, you look at the United States and its unsuccessful attempts to prevent armed violence among children, with all the strength of institutions and experts who are dedicated to that problem. If with that problem - with all the specificities of the two countries - America cannot stand alone, how Serbia could and under what conditions?
The problem of the United States is that, despite the launch of powerful programs and resources, as was the case with the "Now Is The Time to Take Action Against Gun Violence" program launched by President Obama, the problem generators that are the cause of the largest armed violence against children and youth in the history of the country, are working at full speed, becoming more powerful and influential. I'm talking about the military-industrial complex that carries out strong militarization and militarism and is the most powerful lobby group in the US. The resources that American society has put in place to prevent adolescent gun violence are not nearly as influential or large. It's as if you're preparing to defend against a tsunami with a pan in hand. The problem of Serbia is that the government in Serbia is obsessed and enthusiastic about the American model. Here is a recipe for new disasters.
Arrests out of the blue, banishment from the country, beatings... All this happened to us in the last week alone. The Serbian Progressive Party, born from the foam left behind by their spiritual father Vojislav Šešelj, is returning to its roots. I can't escape from myself
"The levers of power are not in their hands," said Bishop Grigorije. "But there is something in the Holy Scriptures that I like very much, and that is that the power of God is revealed in weakness. So, all worldly power is on one side. And on the other side, in the hands of these young men and women is the weakness of this world. But in their weakness, the power of God or God's justice appears. That is why they are at such a great advantage."
The regime and its media have been trumpeting the "civil war" for months, and the government is the only one that has a patent for peace and stability - of course, with the help of the propaganda machine and the use of force. "It is a propaganda tactic of SNS that says: 'violence is everywhere, terrorists surround us, but we are here to save you,'" explains communication professor Jelena Kleut for "Vreme".
Students and citizens who accompany them on these walking feats, were welcomed as the most native together with those who came the day before from other places. A dove of peace was also released on the stage next to the promenade along the river - this symbolic gesture of the two students is the most impressive gesture of understanding and respect between the Bosniak and Serbian peoples since the end of the wars in the former Yugoslavia
The three-day parliament for the promotion of Aleksandar Vučić and his Movement for the People and the State was realistically a fiasco. But it was first of all conceived as a media spectacle for regime television directed by court promoter Željko "DJ Žeks" Mitrović, with scenography and iconography adapted to the Serbian political market.
RTS is blocked, universities do not work, and threats, insults and calls to the prosecutor's office and the police to arrest blockers, rioters and terrorists are pouring out from the top of the government. The Serbian state has turned into a farce
Anyone who condemns the regime's targeting of people from the media, the non-governmental sector, the opposition and universities, must not agree to this targeting of RTS editors and journalists either.
The government of Đur Mazut is "counter-revolutionary", focused on retaliation and state and street violence against opponents of the regime
Vučić and Šešelj: Where I stopped, you continue
The return of radical violence subscribeThe archive of the weekly Vreme includes all our digital editions, since the very beginning of our work. All issues can be downloaded in PDF format, by purchasing the digital edition, or you can read all available texts from the selected issue.
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