<nettime> the Serbian myth of young, beautiful and smart

[Aleksandar Gubas <gutwine@yahoo.com>]

THE SERBIAN MYTH OF YOUNG, BEAUTIFUL AND SMART

All the thoughts and ideas on the reforming the Serbian society and
overthrowing Milosevic's regime take one basic assumption: the
alternative is recognized in the Serbian youth and students.

This is to be doubted. I'll tell you the three randomly taken
examples before I explain why.

1. In 1992 there was the large student protest against Milosevic.
After the beginning of the war in Bosnia and putting UN sanctions on
Yugoslavia, students occupied some University buildings, holding them
for several weeks and demanding Milosevic's resignation and early
elections. They were supported, among the others, by the Association
of Yugoslav Pilots, who offered a plane for students' needs. Students
from the Protest's propaganda department were delighted and started
to make silly plans about dropping leaflets from the sky to the
Serbian peasants, in order to explain them the sense of the protest.
No one from the student propaganda department was thinking about the
possible effects of bombing Serb peasants by leaflets - no one among
the 'young, beautiful and smart' students (note: working in
propaganda service!) had any knowledge on their own people's mass
psychology. (Fortunately, the idea was never realized.)

2. In April 1999, during the NATO air campaign in Serbia, Serbian
authorities have taken over Radio B92. Later, the B92 crew has
launched the new programme, completely unwisely named - guess how?
B2-92!!! No one among the 'young, beautiful and smart' members of the
crew seems to worry about the B2 associations in air raided Serbia.
(But why should they worry at all? After all, it's not the radio for
the average Serb audience.)

3. A few deys ago, the student organization Otpor (The Resistance)
held rally in Belgrade. Previously they had junk-mailed thousands of
e-mail account owners by the .html invitations to that rally. No one
among 'young, beautiful and smart' Otpor activists was thinking about
the psychology of an average e-mail reader. Even I, who took part in
all the Belgrade demonstrations since 1991 to 1999, was irritated by
such mailbombing.

All these examples tell about the horrifying lack of style, and lack
of consciousness about the country one lives in, even lack of the
basic common-sense psychology knowledge. You can't have the ambitions
to change the system and overthrow the regime when you have no style
and no knowledge and skills neccesary to do it.

The myth of 'young, beautiful and smart' preassumes that the youth is
by definition capable of changes, resistent to prejudices and
stupidities and full of vision. It's not true; the examples clearly
tell so. Besides, the same myth tells the young generation differs
greatly from the older ones. So many times I was disappointed
witnessing the contrary.

The truth IS that, in general, young people have more brains and are
more flexible, creative and skillful. And it's amazing how they miss
to use these advantages, repeating the same mistakes as their
(grand)parents.

One should learn from the regime - people working in Milosevic's
ruling structures know very well how to communicate to the Serbs.
'Young, beautiful and smart' should learn that lesson. Until then,
they'll eat shit, drop leaflets from the planes, junk-mail others and
call themselves like NATO bombers. And wonder why nothing in Serbia
changes!

I need to give a more detailed comment on the students' junk-mail
case. I do support that student rally, and if I was in Belgrade
(which unfortunately I am not at this moment), I would surely join.
But I can't advocate the students who break some basic netiquette
rules, as well as the items of the contract with their provider.
That's why I fully approve their provider's decision, even if such
decision was primarily politicaly motivated - if I was the provider,
I would also cancel the accounts of the people who repeatedly
junk-mail others from my server, no matter what's the content of
those messages.

And it's very strange how here mentioned B2 radio informed about that
case. In their news in English they told:

***
'Internet provider Sezampro has cancelled accounts held by activists
and members of the student resistance organisation Otpor. In a
statement today Otpor said that the organisation's three business
accounts had been cancelled this week, and that Sezampro had then
blocked the accounts of 26 of its activists.

A Sezampro representative a short time ago said that the accounts had
been cancelled after several warnings to Otpor about mailbombing
other account-holders' email accounts. The spokesman said that after
complaints from other Sezampro clients and the warnings, the
organisation's business accounts had been cancelled, followed by the
disconnection of personal accounts after the mail-bombing failed to
stop. He added that the company was tolerant of any kind of political
activity but had a responsibility to protect the interests of its
other clients.'
***

It sounds pretty OK in English. But in their news in Serbian, B2 told
only the first passage of quoted above - not a single word about the
provider's explanation! Really funny. Another proof to me that this
radio is more West- than Serbia-oriented, not paying much attention
from the untouchable B2 heights to the domestic audience.

Some 'young, beautiful and smart' Serbs seem to worry more about how
to get money from abroad, for the stories about defending democracy
and blah blah, than about the true benefit of Serbia. The foreign
investors lighten their own conscience by giving money for the empty
stories, and until this mutual game is so successful, there's no hope
for any changes in Serbia.

The changes may come only when someone asks the true questions. Let's
face the truth and see what's the TRUE reason why all the attempts to
change things in Serbia have failed. It's easiest to say simply:
"Milosevic is too strong." Maybe his young and beautiful alternative
is not as smart as it should be? Or it doesn't want to be smart at
all (it's sooo bothering to think deeply, and sooo comfortable to
repeat the cliche)?

Aleksandar Gubas


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