The condescending elites and their barely concealed hatred for Macedonia
It’s fascinating to watch the elites and anti-sovereignty crowd come together and celebrate the deal agreed to by Macedonia’s Zoran Zaev and Greece’s Alexis Tsipras. It’s one big cluster consisting of folks in the EU, US, the region, and Macedonia, from academia, think-tanks, the media, and of course both elected and unelected politicians and bureaucrats. They are a mutual admiration society all sitting around in a circle furiously stroking each other’s egos.
But don’t challenge them and suggest that, perhaps, it is the people of Macedonia who should have a say in their own future! Case in point: James Ker-Lindsay is a LSEE Senior Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science, speaks Greek, has lived and worked in Greece, has been or is a member of a number of professional associations which focus on Greece and the region, and naturally, as an academic, has a 14-page CV. LSEE, I should point out, is funded in part by Eurobank EFG/Hellenic Petroleum S.A. and the National Bank of Greece/Viohalco S.A.
Right after the announcement of the agreement, he tweeted some warmly approving remarks with the #NorthMacedonia hashtag on Twitter, in an effort to begin driving the conversation there and subtly, or perhaps not, attempting to force Macedonia to be North Macedonia by executive fiat, or, in this case executive Twitter. I merely called him out on this which made him very cross. He shot back: “Do you have any idea of the joy I will take when this goes through and you and the other xenopatriots — sitting comfortably at a distance egging people on to remain isolated and impoverished for your own bizarre reasons — cease to be anachronistic and simply become irrelevant?” Wow! Looks like I touched a nerve. Granted James was also sitting comfortably at a distance egging people on to give up their name and sovereignty for his own reasons — though they’re not bizarre reasons, but calculated ones (more, below). And I would hardly say that Macedonia is isolated or impoverished.
Now, to be fair, James has a bias because he is human, or at least I believe he is. We all have our own particular biases. As noted by the above, he’s firmly on the side of his Greek friends and that’s fine. I support my Macedonian friends and their right to hold on to the name they have chosen for themselves, their identity, their constitution, etc. My problem comes from the fact that James pawns himself off as impartial when he is not. So do all of the others who belong to this cluster crowd. They all share the same worldview and the same goals and the same platforms where they share the same views on every subject they pontificate on. They are all a part of the international jet-set crowd, moving from one international feast of first-class hotels and flights to another where they can lecture the little people.
With every gathering of this crowd, there is no room for diversity of opinion and, as evidenced by James’s angry words, certainly no tolerance for it either but instead a bizarre almost sadistic joy at attempting to put those they disagree with down. What they fail to realize is that they will eventually choke on their own bitterness and bile. Another of the condescending elite crowd, is Professor Florian Bieber from the University of Graz, and in response to a Macedonian on Twitter who said that the Macedonian people would never support the Zaev/Tsipras deal, he retorted “Are you the elected PM to know what citizens support?” These are folks whose own identities are secure, but who, over time, have come to view themselves as citizens of the world and so have become deathly bored with their own identities and believe that everyone else should become enlightened and citizens of their world as well. Those bitter clingers and deplorables who insist on holding on to their own identities are the objects of this cluster’s ire and wrath.
And then there are the Macedonians who aspire to be “citizens of the world,” rejecting the history, tradition, and culture of Macedonia, believing that, yes indeed, all will be right once in NATO (another 2–3 years to get in) and the EU (minimum of a decade, if the EU lasts). This next from a small cluster of Macedonians who believe they know what’s best for all of Macedonia; they tweeted out “Isn’t it about time for the EPP to kick out the extremist anti-NATO and anti-EU VMRO-DPMNE before they again abuse their status to harm the European future of Macedonia and the Balkans?” (The EPP is a parliamentary group in the European Parliament.) Democratic? No. Because there can be no dissent now in Macedonia, nor the EU. You will be made to obey and to care. Plus, they’re just wrong: VMRO-DPMNE’s official position is for Macedonia to join NATO and the EU — just not at any price.
The above mentioned and those like them are, in essence, weaponizing information — they tout the “new name” while deliberately failing to discuss 98% of the agreement which will do great harm to free speech, commercial and private interests, faith and cultural institutions, CSOs and so much more. But they do this because they have an agenda and there is no room for dissent from this agenda. Again, you will be made to care and made to obey.
Last point and it’s a curious one. Zaev says that the agreement will strengthen Macedonian identity, and that Macedonia will get into the EU and NATO. That last part is suspect, not least because there are so many hurdles for membership (plus a long road of 2–3 years for NATO and at least ten for the EU) and there are no guarantees. But on the issue of strengthening Macedonia’s identity there is this to consider: the entire EU project is not designed to strengthen the identity of the individual nation-states or individuals; far from it. The EU is designed to denigrate and eventually destroy those identities and create the New European Man and the New European Woman. Does that sound authoritarian? Because it is.
