ALL BOSNIANS NOW?

In: Dissent: a journal devoted to radical ideas and the values of socialism and democracy, Band 40, Heft 4, S. 403-410

Abstract

THE AUTHOR SHOWS THAT BY 1990 POST-TITOIST YUGOSLAVIA HAD BECOME A HOBBESIAN WORLD, A STATE OF NATURE IN WHICH THE MEANS OF VIOLENCE WERE TOO WIDELY DISTRIBUTED TO AFFORD ANYONE SAFETY, ESPECIALLY THOSE WHO FOUND THEMSELVES A MINORITY IN THE SUCCESSOR REPUBLICS. THE AUTHOR THEN SUGGESTS AN ALTERNATIVE THEORY OF WHAT HAS HAPPENED IN PART OF THE FORMER YUGOSLAVIA. IN THIS OTHER PERSPECTIVE, HUMAN NATURE HAS LITTLE TO DO WITH IT, AND ATAVISM NOTHING AT ALL. NATIONALISM IS OFTEN DEPICTED AS THE IMPOSITION OF ABSTRACTIONS ON ORDINARY LIFE BY IDEALOGUES, THE AUTHOR ATTEMPTS TO DISSPELL THAT DEPICTION IN THIS ARTICLE.