The Fading Magic

World diplomats, statesmen, strategists, analysts and planners who have been compelled to deal with the Serbian national question for some time now, can't seem to resolve the dilemma of whether they are up against insane fanaticism or only an insolent bluff. It is obvious that the Serbs are being led by people capable of producing almost an unlimited number of wars, but can they be brought to their senses, should one make concessions or threaten them, make promises or punish them? What do these people react to at all? So far everything but force has been tried out, but Milosevic, Karadzic and the others are more and more extreme and persistent in their request to get everything for themselves, and the others can have what is left over. The goal is now called United Serbian Lands whose map can be seen in meteorological reports on Belgrade television. The whole world is adamant that such a map cannot exist anywhere except in meteorology.

The Serbs in Croatia and Bosnia, as well as Serbia itself have already paid an enormous price, and no one can convince me that most of them wouldn't immediately sign any kind of agreement that would guarantee them a kilo of potatoes and two eggs a day. However, the leaders won't give up. They claim that the people would lynch anyone who would accept the Vance-Owen borders. They are trying to prove that the Serbian sense for justice is so pronounced that it cannot take a surplus of Muslims in Sarajevo and in the corridors that the Serbs need, or of Albanians in Kosovo. The people really did support them while they kept promising that everything would be over in no time and that it would cost nothing. Then, at the last elections, it turned out that the idea about voting against is still mostly alien to the people, but still, the authorities suddenly became aware of a certain danger. It seems that they have some kind of thermometers showing that the patriotic fever is starting to taper off, that they can no longer count on populism because the people are sending signals that they have hit the bottom and that they have nothing more to give for the sake of the state, for their brothers across the Drina river or for anything else. Milosevic has ruled, so far, with a firm grip on what is most important: the television, weapons and money. He counted on the support of the majority and he underestimated and ignored the opposition. The world considered him a tyrant, but Serbia will, unfortunately, have to confess that he was not. Some journalists did lose their jobs, we have also seen tanks on the streets of Belgrade, the opposition was treated as being traitorous, minorities were threatened and exposed to violence. But, there were no bans and political trials, which classical tyranny can be recognized by. Now, however, there appeared leader of the Emigrants' Centre Brana Crncevic in a Kafkaesque way, into a political commissioner, saying that it can't go like this anymore. He will make a press-bureau, so that journalists will know what they write and say. He was enlightened by this idea precisely at the convenient moment when there appeared, in the press, the story that financial inspectors have also gotten hold of him, that he is about to have an "informative conversation" and that his national interest has a hard currency backing. But, let us not be petty moralists. In politics the personal and the public interests usually somewhat coincide, which means that rarely does power not pay off. Crncevic's Emigrants' Centre has certainly helped many unfortunate people, but it has also perhaps covered some of his expenses. Still, unless it turns out that he had dug in too deep, his sudden sensitivity to the press should not be explained primarily by such reasons. Here, it seems, we have a humorist who has always wanted to be taken seriously. That is why he got hold of power, and power is serious the most when it is used against someone. Although it seems to me that Brana Crncevic himself is not sure whether he really believes in everything he is doing, I believe that everyone should be observed as he wishes to present himself. Therefore, he really cares about Milosevic's state project and considers it a sufficient moral alibi for all the lies, dirt and crimes he must be very well informed about. But, he is a man of the press and if he wants to shut up several critics, he knows that it is not because they are dangerous and because they are lying, but because they are telling the truth which the regime cannot stand. The press can really take a lot here, but as far as Crncevic is concerned, the biggest liars can be at rest. I don't know how far his idea about a press bureau will go, but Brana Crncevic is obviously volunteering to strangle his own profession.

The same is being done to the University by main ideologist of the Socialist Party of Serbia professor Mihailo Markovic. There are more of these belated commissioners, like Aleksandar Bercek in the theater, or painter Trkulja at the Museum of Modern Arts. All of them will ask to be judged only on the basis of their intentions and their faith in the United States of Serbia, and not of the devastation, despair and the destruction of two states: the former Yugoslavia and Serbia.

Both Yugoslavia and Serbia were unacceptable realities for Milosevic. One was too big, the other too small. His deeds will have to be judged as a conceptual art, as a poetic vision, and not as a policy. All he has to show is a concept of the United States of Serbia, the rest is just a bloody and unfortunate happening. If politics were at issue here, Milosevic, Karadzic, Crncevic and the others would have given up long ago. In politics there exists quite a clear price list for all intentions and plans, but these poets and artists set the price of their visions themselves and they do not care if there is no one to pay for them. Everything they have broken, spent and spilt so far has turned out to be insufficient, which, for them, only proves the enormous value of their undertaking. Apart from that, a politician can change and adjust his goals, while an artist who gives up betrays himself. The problem appears when the magic goes away, and, to all intents and purposes, that moment is approaching. Warriors are slowly becoming exhausted, the concept of the United States of Serbia is fading and disappearing, Serbia is starting to think about itself, and the hunger is losing its artistic sense. The artists have no way out. They can no longer count on ruling with the help of exaltation and they are getting ready to become ordinary politicians. However, in the meantime, it has become too late for ordinary politics. The state has loosened in every respect and they are reflexly clenching their fists. Something will inevitably break.