(The synergy between the personal, the particular, and the general.)
We are entering a period of a “Bifurcation Point,” and from here onwards, there are only two trajectories that our society can follow, colloquially referred to as “STATENESS.”
The first is the path of personal and societal development and progress, while the second is the path toward disintegration and downfall, leading to the disappearance from the world map of the stateness of Macedonia and the Macedonian people.
For the first time ever, we are presented with a historical opportunity, and the path we choose will be made by us, either consciously or unconsciously, misled or rational, but at least the gains and losses will be of our own accord, and the choice will be ours. The alibi based on interpretations of our historiography, interpreted by pseudo-historians, former prime ministers, and court historians, will not be available to us. The notion that others are always to blame for our misfortunes, preventing us from getting out of a predicament, cannot be an “argumentum a contrario” for our unfortunate fate. Simply put, the level of civilization development in the 21st century, the most conscious of all periods in the development of world civilization, the possibility to be informed in “real-time” about everything that is happening, prevents our complaints. When you add the “new” political system of pluralism and democracy to this, all arguments about bad neighbors, Europeans, or “Americans” fall flat. We are the sole creators of our destiny.
The choice of bad, uneducated, and primitive politicians, whose sole interest, proven over the past manipulated 30 years, is the legacy of personal enrichment primarily through corruption, and at the expense of national interests. That choice has been our doing, carried away by the imposed partisan exaltation. Our choices have always been incrementally worse than the previous ones, and so it continues indefinitely. Our only view of the future is with our “heads in the sand,” a perspective that “with eyes wide shut,” not to see the “naked king,” our simplified politician, allows us only the view of the flight order for escaping from the homeland. However, such a perspective, for those who have remained in this piece of land, is what our so-called leaders of Political Parties create on our political scene.
Here, of course, dominating with his “towering” intellectual political thought is the leader of the “Blockheads” gang, His Highness Mr. Mickoski. But let’s not waste much time on such an obscure personality, especially with his maliciousness, misanthropy, and hypocrisy that he has promoted in the public scene in recent weeks. Mickoski’s political innovations will probably be placed in the “believe it or not” sections of world political encyclopedias. First, he expressed opposition to the “Pristina government,” and here we are in agreement – we, too, from the faction, are against the formation of a government to conduct elections.
Firstly, aside from creating administrative problems for citizens and hindering businesses, nothing of any substance is being done. Secondly, we believe that Macedonia has the democratic capacity to conduct elections, and those in power should take responsibility for it. But then comes a surprise, in the spirit of Mickoski’s well-known consistency; he will “give” a proposal for ministers but will not vote for the government. But here is not the end of the oxymoronic genius of the “teacher.” Besides not voting for the government with his ministers, they would not even participate in the work of the government. If this is not a blatant example of political autism by the leader of the “Blockheads,” I don’t know what is!
When I add his grandiose acrobatics with the right to choose ministers, by analogy, the candidate for the President of the state, a complete “sketch” of a party dictator emerges. These were precisely the reasons that compelled us as a Faction to oppose the usurpation of the party by Mickoski, with a request for democratic organization of the party or the functioning of bodies within the party, the only way to avoid the “absolutism of the smartest” – the Party President. The last “role” that Mickoski assigned himself is as the head of the election headquarters, something that is occurring for the first time in Macedonian political history.
No, don’t think that this is aimed at managing the campaign and elections properly. In fact, previous experience has shown that he neither understands campaign management nor the legislation related to elections. However, in this way, among other things, he will be 100% sure to fulfill the promises given to his business friends from SDS while at the same time successfully leading VMRO-DPMNE to a certain defeat. Certainly, as a faithful follower of “Mammon,” he blindly respects his own lucrative interests and will not allow anyone to take away “his (party) ass,” thus completing the process of the privatization of VMRO-DPMNE.
The aforementioned only confirms the speculations that have long been circulating among the diplomatic corps, and our strategic partners, indicating that Mickoski has undergone a successful lobotomy. So, like a hopeless case, he finds himself in political isolation, dethroned, or to be more precise, defactored in the complete sense of the term. I mention this to, as much as it is possible, clarify to the sycophants in his entourage what the phrase “liberated from pressures” uttered by Mickoski in one of the recent IC sessions really means. It’s not about any “liberation from pressures” but rather the consequence of international isolation and defactoring.
But let’s set aside Mickoski and the negative reference for anyone close to him and return to what I called the “point of bifurcation,” which can also be referred to using the popular narrative of a “watershed.” Specifically, every nation, in a certain period, exhausts the established socio-political and economic relations and reaches a state of the so-called “point of bifurcation” when it must decide how to proceed. However, before I begin the elaboration, respecting Karl Popper and his demand to precisely establish the meanings of terms in advance so that we can understand each other.
In its development, humanity goes through various forms of collective organization, one being a people and the other a nation—something that our self-proclaimed political analysts either by ignorance or intent constantly confuse. In essence, so not to dwell too much, the basic idea is that peoples create states, and states create nations—a process that can take centuries.
Macedonia is an evident example of a collection of peoples, which is noted in the Constitution. Unfortunately, the nation has not yet been fully formed. The process of nation-building is challenging. A fundamental precondition is that the peoples inclined toward nation-building understand and respect each other. The essence lies in the conviction that there is a need for one another. In other words, they can find solidarity in common interests that can be realized through shared and constructive politics where everyone can find their own interests.
This is the only way to overcome the “theirs” and “ours” nationalisms that historically lead to anarchy. It is precisely because of this that Robert Schuman would say, “everyone must be convinced that we need each other, regardless of the position and power we possess.” Here we come to the fundamental point, which I mentioned at the beginning of the column: each of us must find the synergy between the personal, the individual, and the common.
At the moment of a “bifurcation point,” we need to decide: Will we embark on the path of creating a nation or face the disintegration of the state and division along ethnic lines, inevitably making our people an easy prey for our neighbors? The only way to build a proud nation in a multicultural, multi-confessional, and multinational society is to join the European Union. The EU’s paradigm of coexistence of diverse peoples and nations is our paradigm for creating a modern nation and state. Any other “option” is merely a populist lie until the elections, and the only option left for us is the one mentioned in the headline of this column, “Hot Dog and sololina”.
Oliver Andonov