Thursday 14 March 2013

Give us a kiss!

MSN.com: Croatian girl kisses Serb boy when asked how she dared walk with him

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm a just slightly hardened cynic about impromptu images, but it's a nice one anyway.

Balkan Ⓐnarchist said...

Indeed it is. I responded to one of the commentators of that msn.com article (see the comment dated Mar 11, 2013 1:20PM with the most dislikes, mine is one of the 3 replies to it). The comment I responded to is full of the cynicism that fuels the various ethnic nationalisms which I deplore, e.g. "Hatred will always be alive- no matter how you try to convience [sic.] yourself it can be changed." Though I think I replied too late to carry that convo forward, not to mention how I didn't reply to that commentator's original comment in that thread. And being a perfectionist, I always review my writing and think how I could've used a different word here or there and so on. :-\

Anonymous said...

If sadly hatred is likely to linger in the hearts of those who wish to shelter it, then that's the place where it should remain until they can find a way to defuse it.

Balkan Ⓐnarchist said...

My view exactly, Owen! I find it totally cynical of those, who think they're "protecting" their youth by passing on their blatantly destructive feelings, which they deem "patriotism" and promote as such. Not to mention how counter-intuitive such "protective patriotism" really is, once you've thought it through; as if being cynically suspicious of entire nations numbering millions, spread over vast territories (not only in the Balkans, but worldwide), living various lifestyles, often separately from one another, will provide adequate "protection" in case another war starts.

God forbid another conflict in our part of the world, but that's what those, with this ever-so-cautious "love" for one's people, do: they promote collective guilt of other nations, approve of gross generalisations of the same hated nation, and justify it all with a selective view of history, which proves how their ever-downtrodden nation - with the obvious exception of "traitors", Communists, mercenaries and other "rotten apples" - is in the right, and how the other ever-troublesome nation is in the wrong (the exceptions of the latter are insignificant to "nationally-conscious" members the former).

And remember, if you were on the right side of history 15-20 years ago, then you'll always be in the right, no matter what you've done since; whereas if you were on the wrong side back then, then you will still be held hostage to it now, even if you were personally innocent of any wrongdoing at the time! There is no escape from collective guilt, as far as the "nationally-conscious" members of the nation hurt by some of your fellow ethnics are concerned; you're one of them and they know what you think, want and dream about!