The new elite

The concentration of an enormous amount of money in a small number of hands, and in a way that leaves behind a whole scale of suspicious tones, the creation of a new class of upstarts (les nouveaux riches) overnight and the increasingly firm and obvious linkage of that primitive capitalist class that is being created with the authorities, makes it necessary to finally speak about the "new elite" in these regions.

There are still no precise criteria and exact research that would help determine who belongs to this "elite". It is only known that since time immemorial there have always been and there will always be people and social groups which, on the basis on some kind of "exclusive" characteristic imposed as a basis for legitimacy, consider that they have the right to a special place in the distribution of political power, social reputation and material wealth. It is really difficult to say what these "exclusive" characteristics for recognizing our elites are and what gives them that kind of "legitimacy", especially now when the bearers of political power most often do not satisfy one of the basic criteria of "elitism" - competency in conducting state affairs. Or when many things that are happening in the sphere of the economy, and which are pure crime, are presented, even by the state, as acts of patriotism and charity. If one were to make analogies with the famous metaphors from the theory of the elite, one could say that the political, ideological and economic power and authority is now more often held by "hyenas" and "snakes" than by "foxes" and "lions". These metaphors denote certain visible characteristics of the spirit of the authorities, the atmosphere of grabbing and of unscrupulousness and the general logic of social degeneration. "An alliance is being formed today between the newly acquired, often robbed wealth which wants political power and the political power that wants wealth. This alliance is striving to get its legitimacy through ultra-patriotism. The models of the primary accumulation of capital, a social society and the world periphery of capital are being linked. The very broad and socially heterogeneous category of the newly created poor people suits the small circle of the newly created rich ones. The masses now also consist of the social layers, primarily the new, highly educated middle layers, which were until yesterday socially safe and relatively influential, and which are today being impoverished and left without any kind of social power. Instead of a 'revolutionary elite' and 'red bourgeoisie', we are getting an upstart, extremely aggressive rich 'elite', of contemporary 'baron-thieves' (they include today unscrupulous and at the same time very powerful both economic and political state officials, along with members of the war-time bourgeoisie and the 'bosses' of the underground) as well as the national-chauvinist elite of power. The true elite of knowledge and spiritual and material creativity, is mostly acquiring the position of a new proletariat. In the political sense, it is mostly helpless. At the same time, since it is not able to develop its knowledge and abilities, it is leaving the country more and more. This increases the chances for the society to become generally primitive and for the reproduction of false elites in the economy, politics and other fields of life", said Zoran Vidojevic, Ph.D., scientific advisor at the Belgrade-based Institute for social studies. It is the national oligarchy, the corrupt militaristic caste in various armies, the war-time bourgeoisie and ideologists of war that, according to Zoran Vidojevic, make the "war-time elite", Because, in war-time, it is a small part of marginal groups that take part in the war so as to steal, "large caliber" smugglers and members of newly formed "gangs" that become the richest. Members of the war-time "elite" and those involved in organized crime benefit from the war no matter how long it lasts and how it ends. The masses who are "ordinary" soldiers in the war are, as always, the biggest losers, often unaware of the proportions and causes of those losses and also unaware of their future. Every story about elites unavoidably ends with the once often used notion about the "rhythm of the Buddenbrooks". The simplification of the plot of Thomas Mann's book "Buddenbrooks" led to the theory that every elite has is natural course and cycle: the first generation accumulates money and power, the second gets educated and finishes good and expensive schools, the third mostly spends, travels, goes in for music and disappears into decadence, usually spending everything the first two generations had created. "In a few decades the origin of many wealths which are now growing with unbelievable speed will be forgotten here too", said Aljosa Mimica, professor at the Belgrade Faculty of Philosophy. The famous saying that 'money doesn't stink' will be applied. The second generation of the present elite will probably have sons educated in Oxford and Cambridge and then no one will sense the smell of blood and crime on that money as they do today.

There is, of course, the already worn out saying that every nation has the authorities (elite) it deserves. No matter what we have done wrong, we really do not deserve what we have today.