Bosnia and Herzegovina needs someone who loves it

Bosnia and Herzegovina, neither as a country, nor as a state, nor as "Bosnia and Herzegovina", has anyone who would love it and therefore protect it. As a country, it has been parcelled out and divided into meaningless and heartless administrative parts and pieces; as a state, it has institutions that exist only for themselves, and decision-making has been moved out of them into the heads and hands of crowned clowns, and there are so few Bosnians and Herzegovinians that they all fit into the category of "others" and are so quiet that objectively, one gets the impression that they don't even exist. We have nationalists who don't love their own people or nations unless they are in their parties; we have social democrats who are so only to distinguish themselves from the nationalists, but are essentially dinosaurs who haven't been informed that a comet has fallen; we have "civic" people who, of all civic rights, only know their own, because the three of them are citizens; we have a Republic that is anything but a republic, we have a Federation that is least of all a federation... we have a bunch of selfish, self-sufficient, and self-satisfied characters who only remember the inhabitants, citizens, peoples, and nations when their lives need to be made more difficult and unbearable. And none of them love Bosnia and Herzegovina.

For all of them, Bosnia and Herzegovina is a place where one can earn well, steal with impunity, behave irresponsibly, play at being in power and authority... none of that requires any emotion, feeling, attention, or tenderness. All of them – and us too – wake up in the morning rested or unrested, groggy or fresh, tired or still tired from yesterday, in a good mood or grumpy, yawn and stretch, whatever... and for some, the first thought is God, and for some, coffee. But for no one, absolutely no one, is the first thought Bosniak-ness, Serb-ness, Croat-ness, nor Bosniak-ness, nor Herzegovinian-ness... That comes later in the day when people without personal authority, individual integrity, personal sovereignty, scoundrels and wretches who have nothing to be proud of, need a refuge from their own powerlessness and inferiority, so they choose something as vague and never sufficiently explained as nation, social democracy, citizenship, politics, democracy...

Democracy is the perfect mask of perfect tyranny; fundamentally, it is and always remains a prison without walls in which the prisoners do not even dream of escape. It is a slave system in which the subjects/slaves will be happy to have enough to eat and drink and to be entertained. Such a democracy is not easy to overthrow: there are always enough slaves who are happy if their masters are satisfied with them. Apart from them, I don't know many happy people; I know many poor Bosniaks, Serbs, and Croats, and none of them are particularly happy that their national leaders are rich; nor are they any more Bosniak, Serb, or Croat because they are poor. Bosnians and Herzegovinians are not asked anything anyway. Likewise, I know that there is no country in the world whose poor are happy, in which there is no ignorance and suffering, whose prisons are empty, on whose streets there are no beggars, whose elderly are not in need of attention and care, in which taxes do not weigh heavily... However, they say that in many of those countries there is peace, order, and work, and that one can see on the streets and in the parks (they have parks) that these people, inhabitants and citizens, love their country. Bosnia and Herzegovina, one can see from the unrest, disorder, and idleness, and even from the streets and parks that we don't have, is loved by no one.

Perhaps we don't even know what love for one's country is, what we call patriotism? Patriotism is to protect and preserve, to stand by one's country at all times, and by the government only when it deserves it. (Mark Twain) This means standing behind the president or any public official only when and as much as he stands by the country. It is patriotic to support him to the extent that he effectively serves the country and the state (all its inhabitants), and unpatriotic not to oppose him to the extent that he fails to defend his country due to inefficiency or in some other way. In both cases, it is unpatriotic not to speak and not to tell the truth, to the president as well as to anyone else. (Theodore Roosevelt) Those who wholeheartedly nod their heads to the president, regardless of what nonsense, lies, or fabrications he speaks, deserve contempt in advance. They obviously received their brains by mistake because their spinal cord is too much for their behavior. This civilizational shame must be urgently removed because neither the president nor the country benefits from such people... I would rather be torn to pieces than be part of such an empty endeavor! (Albert Einstein)

However, talking about beautiful things, and even discussing ugly ones, with people who have renounced common sense in their behavior and governance, whose life and political philosophy is based on keeping people and the country in shock and fear, is like giving medicine to the dead or forcing an illiterate person to learn by reading. In other words, only those who love no one and nothing but themselves, who think of no one and nothing but themselves, who are used to having everything they intend done for them, conceded to them, and passed for them, can show so much audacity, impudence, and selfishness. We will probably never know who and how much has done for them, backed down before their loud and aggressive approach, and what has all passed for them at the expense of all of us... so that something else can pass for the latter at no less expense to us. At the expense of our peace. And as long as we are not at peace... as long as peace is not secure and unquestionable... as long as our peace is not work, housing, electricity... as long as we are in a constant hysterical attack... as long as our feelings, emotions, and nerves are ruled by fear and as long as those who have not fought still have a desire for war... as long as people flinch when a door slams, expecting to see a headless figure in it... there are no innocents, no guiltless, and no good people; everyone is guilty and everyone owes us and everyone is bad... and we are no better than them until we realize that it is within our power to start the world anew by finally starting to love our country.

These are difficult times... the kind in which human souls are tested. And even the greatest patriots will lose the will to serve their country in this crisis... until we realize that if there is a problem, there is a solution... if there must be problems and solutions, let them be in our time so that our children can have peace. And so that they have something to love...