02. 10. 2011.

Freedom, behind, but also in front of us!

 (a reaction to the play Tearing Down the Eiffel Tower, by Jeton Neziraj, as directed by Kuštrim Bekteši)

Danilo Jovanović

 Following the currently popular terminology and rhetoric, we will characterise this text as a feasibility study, and address the overwhelming issue of freedom.

 The Freedom of the Marginalised in Times of Recession

 To speak about freedom, and on top of that, to demand freedom in these "tough times" could also be described as an attack on the freedom of "the majority". A terror of the minority against the majority. But haven’t we washed ourselves, haven’t we shown Europe our clean faces, the faces of honest admirers of the various freedoms and rights of some minorities out there, which definitely do not exist in our society? And this same Europe has, like a bad teacher, not learned the lesson of freedom behind and in front of the niqab. They refuse to take off their virtual niqabs, but want to strip ours away.

 Through the concept of the scarce philosophy of the cattle herd, it is easy to impose metaphoric priorities, in the sense all herds need a good shepherd.

What is important is that we make it onto the white Schengen list, the next report of the European Commission, the reputation of the state, it is important that everything gives the appearance that freedom exists. Feel free to express your uniqueness, because there will always be a couple of hundred free citizens to stone you. In a liberal country, with its conservative citizens. Who do you think you’re kidding?

 We wil soon be able to buy that sweet instant freedom at the market, by the ounce. It will serve to reassure the plasticine-cast citizens. They certainly do not mind being terrorized by a rude and rebellious minority of those who think for them, those who create a collective brain, which our citizens will be able to use as a public toilet.

Because we have not yet overcome that perpetual fear of what is different, and the need to immerse ourselves in the collective, in an imaginary society, with even more imaginary freedoms and rights. It is this need that best indicates the fear of free individuals, who would think independently and make their own decisions. The individuals that Mill imagined, one and a half centuries ago, when he said that “a very simple principle” of his work “On Liberty” was that “In relation to oneself, one’s own body and mind, the individual is sovereign.”

"Freedom, please!", the imperative in the phrase of the individual, as an entity which thinks, launches the essential question of freedom of speech and expression under the pressure of various "coercive bodies", imposed by a decadent majority.

 How far can we achieve our own freedom, without threatening that of others?

 Freedom is not only in front, it is also behind the niqab!