Is a Yugoslavia Scenario in America's Future?

#1
Burhead

Burhead

God-Emperor of Politics
Joined
Jan 3, 2009
Messages
26,180
Likes
9,962
#1
When the Communist monopoly on power began to wane in the mid-1980s, as across Eastern Europe, and the Yugoslav media began taking on taboo topics, nothing was more discussed than ethnic politics and their messy history. It quickly became a firestorm. To cite the most damaging example, around 1985 the Serbian media began reporting violent crimes committed against Serbs by Albanians in Kosovo, which was a majority-Albanian province that enjoyed self-government under Tito’s system.

While Albanians did commit crimes against Serbs, the opposite was also true, yet the Belgrade media focused on the former while ignoring the latter. Accounts of rapes of Serbian women — some real, many imagined — served to whip up nationalist fervor. The press, with Serbia’s Communist Party increasingly behind them, since they realized that nationalism was a powerful motivator for potential voters, indulged in regular accounts of lurid Albanian crimes against Serbs.

A classic case was that of Djordje Martinović, a Serb in Kosovo who in 1986 claimed he had been brutalized by Albanian thugs, including being anally raped with a bottle, in a horrible hate crime. The Serbian media went wild with the story, which inflamed rising nationalist passions. Albanian protests that the media was wrong made no headway with Serbs, who preferred what I have elsewhere termed The Narrative over facts. The subsequent revelation that Martinović had faked his attack, having injured himself in an act of self-pleasuring gone seriously wrong, got a lot less media attention than the initial story.

By then the damage was done, as anybody familiar with Yugoslavia’s tragic demise knows. A colorless Communist functionary on the make, Slobodan Milošević, realized that nationalism was the ticket to political success as Communism waned. He made the fate of Serbs in Kosovo, real and imagined, his major plank, and he exploited this toxic environment created by the media to whip up a frenzy that he could exploit, and he did.

By 1989, Milošević was the master of Serbia, and he promptly cancelled Kosovo’s autonomy, reducing the Albanians there to second-class status under the Serbs. This was payback for all the crimes perpetrated by Albanians against innocent Serbs. Of course, radicalization inevitably begets counter-radicalization, and before long Croats, Albanians, and all the non-Serbian groups in Yugoslavia were digging up their own nationalist grievances and skewed history to counter the Serbs. War and genocide were soon to follow, in a tragedy that was especially poignant because it was eminently avoidable.

Playing political games with race and ethnicity in any multinational society is a dangerous thing. Obama, by promising that he wanted to be president of all Americans, then governing as a highly partisan Democrat, has laid the groundwork for a hazardous future for the United States, hardly helped by his public indulging of black nationalism, particularly his incautious discussion of crimes both real and imagined against African Americans. However verboten discussion of white nationalism is at present among polite Americans, it is unavoidable that this will become an issue in the future, with potentially explosive consequences — to say nothing of the rise of Hispanic and Asian nationalisms too, as the United States becomes even more diverse than Yugoslavia was.

Managing this increasingly fissiparous country as economic prospects diminish will challenge the most gifted politicians. Indulging in ethnic resentments as a substitute for solutions to vexing politico-economic problems only makes things go from bad to worse, sometimes rapidly and painfully. With both our parties increasingly beholden to Wall Street at the expense of Main Street, average Americans of all backgrounds will not be happy that they are bequeathing a life of less affluence and opportunity to their children. In such a time of troubles, playing ethno-racial political games as a substitute for reform is deeply irresponsible.

It would be nice if Democrats and Republicans played better together, particularly on the budget and borrowing money. It would be especially nice if they seriously addressed issues of rising economic inequality and diminishing opportunities for average Americans. But it is imperative that they not fan the flames of ethnic and racial resentments if they wish to avoid a terrible outcome for our country.
Click to expand...

Yugoslavia’s Warning to America | The XX Committee
 
#2
#2
Yes I think the Country breaks up into multiple independent nations. It's only a matter of time.
 
#3
#3
No. I used to really enjoy reading Schindler's blog, and I still anticipate his next post, but he's gotten a little loopy here over the past month. I'm not really sure why. Seems, however, like it started with his post about how Muslim extremists are attacking the West because they see us as a bunch of "*******," while writing off the notion that dire economic circumstances and few productive social outlets for them creates problems.
 
#5
#5
No. Yugoslavia was a contrived conglomeration of ancient rivals all forced to play nice by the heavy handed Marshal Tito. Once Tito died there was nothing holding them together and they naturally decided to sort things out. the USA is a totally different entity.
 
#6
#6
YorkVol said:
No. Yugoslavia was a contrived conglomeration of ancient rivals all forced to play nice by the heavy handed Marshal Tito. Once Tito died there was nothing holding them together and they naturally decided to sort things out. the USA is a totally different entity.
Click to expand...

I'll disagree with you to an extent. I think the US is becoming so polarized that Balkanization has the potential to take hold.
 
#12
#12
Grand Vol said:
I'll disagree with you to an extent. I think the US is becoming so polarized that Balkanization has the potential to take hold.
Click to expand...


It's really not close to that. Let's not forget that there was a genocide in that area within the last 20-25 years.
 
#14
#14
Dave1967 said:
Yes I think the Country breaks up into multiple independent nations. It's only a matter of time.
Click to expand...

xpSGb.gif
 
  • Like
Reactions: 4 people
#15
#15
volinbham said:
I'm with Velo.

Reminds me a bit of how every generation is on the verge of Rome burning.
Click to expand...

I think throughout history every generation has had an opportunity to drive the bus off a cliff, if the balls bounced a little differently. Of course, the odds greatly favor maintaining relative stability.
 
#16
#16
volinbham said:
I'm with Velo.

Reminds me a bit of how every generation is on the verge of Rome burning.
Click to expand...

You don't think as the demographics of this country continue changing that in the future it won't be possible to see an inter-ethnic conflict arise? I'm not saying within the next five years or decade but on down the road.
 
#17
#17
Burhead said:
You don't think as the demographics of this country continue changing that in the future it won't be possible to see an inter-ethnic conflict arise? I'm not saying within the next five years or decade but on down the road.
Click to expand...

We already have inter-ethnic conflict.

We do not have the geographic link to ethnicity like Yugoslavia had so it would be hard to say we divide geographically.

I'd also say that political and socio-economic conflict are as likely as ethnic conflict.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 person
#18
#18
I have far more in common with any poster on this board than many Yugoslavs had between their ethnic groups.
 
#19
#19
Burhead said:
You don't think as the demographics of this country continue changing that in the future it won't be possible to see an inter-ethnic conflict arise? I'm not saying within the next five years or decade but on down the road.
Click to expand...

No way there is as much hatred.
 
#22
#22
America's unifying mythos extends longer (and is much stronger) than that of Yugoslavia's, which was never really a coherent nation to begin with. Perhaps the closest thing to making it cohere was communism, but that ultimately fell apart too, and the nation with it.

I'm not too worried. Like Toujours said earlier, every generation thinks the end is nigh.
 
#24
#24
volinbham said:
I'm with Velo.

Reminds me a bit of how every generation is on the verge of Rome burning.
Click to expand...

millions more immigrants will be in the country in another 5 years and they be the deciding factor on where this country goes. sadly the majority will vote democrat and the fed gov's power will increase more and America's wealth will be consolidated more by a few chosen companies that favor liberal causes. we're seeing it with muslimcare and we'll see it with muslimnet.

the country that our parents lived in is no more.
 
#25
#25
joevol320 said:
millions more immigrants will be in the country in another 5 years and they be the deciding factor on where this country goes. sadly the majority will vote democrat and the fed gov's power will increase more and America's wealth will be consolidated more by a few chosen companies that favor liberal causes. we're seeing it with muslimcare and we'll see it with muslimnet.

the country that our parents lived in is no more.
Click to expand...

You sound like a nativist standing on a dock in New York harbor in the 1880s, whining about all these stinking Irish coming in here.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 3 people
New posts
You must log in or register to reply here.

VN Store



Back
Top