Deviant art, The old piano tree by Crackoala http://bit.ly/1vma2Nn

Well, now you can breathe a sigh of relief, we’ve done well. No, I’m not talking about the progress report which, if we are to believe the beaming prime minister, says that we are the best out of all underachievers. I mean in general. It turns out that this government doesn’t want us to completely change our mindset. It wants us to change only half of it. Which, I’m sure you’ll agree, is much easier. Especially when you have nothing else to do.

So, the government wants us to change only the part of our mindset which prevents us from working hard and diligently, but not to change the whole mindset and go on strike because we are working in poor conditions for low wages.

The governments also wants us to change the mindset and silently pay all the taxes, notaries, bots (sorry, no, not them, they’re paid by the government), but not to change it to the extent that we start expecting efficient public administration (or at least know the number of public employees).

The government wants us to work as the proverbially exemplary Germans, but not to expect our officials to be exemplary like the German ones and resign because of plagiarized doctorates; to honor our obligations towards the state like the Westerners, but to maintain eastern fear before the state; to respect payment deadlines, but to be OK with the promised deadlines passing us like uncontrolled trains; to be rational in expectations and reasonable in demands, but irrationally euphoric when the state decides to use our money to organize grand celebrations; to diligently pay all utilities, but not to expect detailed bills, clear water, stabile voltage, good roads…

If you think that these contradictory demands are schizoid and that the government wants to turn us into borderline personalities – then the government is right to call you malicious criticizers. Because the government doesn’t want to make us stupid. It just wants us – to act stupid. To act stupid when we see with our own eyes everything that’s wrong. To act like we don’t notice that they’re asking us to keep quiet and soldier on, when they really want us to do is just keep quiet. To act stupid before the fact that the date of liberation of Belgrade has become a mobile holiday, like in a church calendar, so this year it coincides with the day when the Russian president is available. To act stupid when they promise us that we are a developing “tiger” like South Korea, but demand a North Korean idolatry. To act stupid before the fact that improvement of the editorial concept of Studio B (i.e. a public service) means that the newly appointed editor in chief in a newly established show (which has the author’s signature in Latin written under the name of the show in Cyrillic?!) gets to ask her guest (M. Lazanjski): “Is this the best and bravest possible politics of a prime minister?”.

If you refuse to act crazy – they tell you that you’re crazy or a pathological hater, which really isn’t a better diagnosis.

Luckily, there are a lot of those others, those who rush to change that half of the mindset. Just look at television, newspapers and web sites – they’re all full of headlines, sorry, advertisements: “Half of the mindset, at half price and negotiable”.

Translated by Marijana Simic

Peščanik.net, 15.10.2014.


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Nadežda Milenković, kreativna direktorka, školovala se da radi sa delinkventima, a završila kao „samohrana majka srpskog advertajzinga“. Smislila neke od najboljih slogana: „Ili jesi ili nisi“ (Lav pivo) , „Izgleda šašavo, ali mene leđa više ne bole“ (Kosmodisk), „Ako vam je dobro, onda ništa“ (Peščanik)... Radila u reklamnim agencijama: Mark-plan, Sači, Mekken, Komunis. Sve manje radi komercijalne kampanje i okreće se goodvertisingu. Na Fakultetu za medije i komunikacije vodila master kurs: Idejologija. Autorka bestseler knjige „Kako da najlakše upropastite rođeno dete“, dugogodišnje rubrike „Pun kufer marketinga“ u nedeljniku Vreme i kolumne ponedeljkom na portalu Peščanik. Poslednja knjiga: „Ponedeljak može da počne“, 2020.

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