“Can a man who’s warm understand one who’s freezing?”
In One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, the ground-breaking 1962 book by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, the narrator asks “Can a man who’s warm understand one who’s freezing?”
To gently paraphrase, can a man or woman who has no risk to his or her name, identity, and history, understand one whose name, identity, and history is at severe risk of being annihilated?
If it is that simple — that that man or woman cannot understand these things for the reason that they themselves are not facing them, then we know what to do — educate and persuade. Show that man or woman what it means when your very name, identity, and history — and everything that goes with it — is at severe risk of being annihilated. There’s at least a bit of hope in showing them, in persuading them to understand — and help — you, and to address you by your proper name…and by your identity. If they refuse to, well, that’s a different column.
Here’s one way of looking at current events:
My name is Jason Miko. I have grown up with that name for many decades now. It is a part of who I am, my identity. While just one part, it is an important part. My given name, Jason, has become something I identify with and it would seem extremely odd for someone to call me, say, “Paul,” or “Michael,” or anything else. Why? I can’t really explain it but I do know this — everyone feels, more or less, the same way.
Now, my family name is slightly different. “Miko,” is a Hungarian name and in the 1990s, I started tracing my family history and heritage. I tracked down distant second cousins in Budapest and Debrecen (we still stay in touch) and visited the birthplace of my grandfather in a little village just outside of Kosice, Slovakia (it is a Hungarian village, of course). I have tracked my family back, on my paternal side, to 1848 and the birth of my great-great grandfather. And, as far as I can tell, my family name comes from the Szekely people, a kind of sub-tribe of the Hungarians that originates in the Carpathian Mountains of Transylvania, now present-day Romania but for ages, part of Hungary, and thoroughly Hungarian (I have visited there as well).
Now, suppose someone told me that from now on, my name would be “Jacob Marley.” I would have to change my birth certificate, passport, driver’s license, diploma, and other documents that bore my name. It would be demanded of others that they now call me “Jacob Marley” (or “Jake” for short). Having grown up for decades as “Jason Miko” and now being told that I am “Jake Marley” and demanding that others call me that, well, I can tell you I would alternate between rage and despondence.
But it gets better: suppose I was told that both my father’s name and my grandfather’s name and their identity must be changed. And the same for all of my ancestors who came before them.
This is the case Bulgaria is making today.
I would not alternate between rage and despondence. It would be rage all the time. Of course I would not give in to that range, but would dedicate myself to properly channeling that rage and overturning the injustice done to me and my family name.
As I have written in the past, it is vital, and in the national security interests of the Republic of Macedonia to retain its identity as Macedonia, and for its citizens, and particularly ethnic Macedonians, to retain their identities as Macedonians.
Let us suppose, for a moment, that a generation is 25 years. Furthermore, let us suppose a timeframe of two generations, or 50 years. In those two generations, children (and then their children and then their children) are taught a very different history than the history their parents were taught. These generations in these 50 years are taught that their country is relatively new and comes from a neighboring country. These generations in these 50 years are also taught that their language is new and actually belongs to another country, another people, another language group.
At the same time, and especially due to our hyperconnected world, social media, the mainstream media, academics, think tanks, well-meaning but generally daft diplomats from Western countries all say that same thing. More and more, they call you a name you have not grown up, something very different from what your ancestors were.
You know exactly what is going to happen in those 50 years to those generations.
Going back to my original quote from Solzhenitsyn. What if that man or woman facing no risk to their own name, identity and history doesn’t even care about what you are facing, or is openly hostile to your name, your identity, history and much else?
I’m not entirely sure I have a good or satisfying answer to that — right now — but I do hope the above-noted people are few and far between.
In the meantime, we have work to do, first in taking over the education and instruction of Macedonian youth and second, in reaffirming to each other and to foreigners, the uniqueness of all that is Macedonian. You have the technology, the communication skills, and the raw material — the rich and unique history of Macedonia and the Macedonians. Now go do it.
