True Reconciliation

I am a great patriot. I love Slovenia. I often pester friends and acquaintances abroad with enthusiastic descriptions of the beauty of my homeland, from its nature to its food and people. I love my language and Slovenian culture. I cheer passionately for Slovenian athletes.

I am also a family man. My four children matter enormously to me. So does my wife. Family values are among the most precious things to me.

I value security. I respect and share people’s expectation that the state will properly ensure public order and protection against terrorism and crime—preventively if possible, and with repressive measures if necessary. I believe that a state, however small, needs not only an appropriately trained, equipped and paid police force but also an army. I believe Slovenia must take on its share of responsibility for ensuring stability and peace, not just within its own borders but in the world.

During the refugee crisis two years ago, I was worried. I am convinced that uncontrolled crossing of state borders is unacceptable and requires an appropriate and effective response from all competent institutions and authorities. I believe that people cannot be fed on slogans and demagoguery, only on a successful economy. I support measures that encourage creativity, dynamism, development and growth. I believe we must not spend more than we earn. In other words, some of you will say, I am a typical narrow-minded right-wing Slovenian redneck.

On the other hand, it is also true that I am often very critical of Slovenia, and especially of Slovenian politics. I am a convinced, if critical, European. I believe in good-neighborly relations. I am worried by the renewed rise of nationalism and the fetishization of national sovereignty. I am open to others and to difference. Multiculturalism is not a swear word for me but a value. I support the rights of same-sex couples. I believe that as a society we are obliged to ensure respect for human dignity and the full enjoyment of rights for all citizens, without discrimination of any kind.

I am an ardent advocate of human rights, political freedoms, humanism, openness and solidarity in society. I believe there is no democracy without effective protection of the individual against the arbitrary (mis)use of power by the authorities. I reject the arbitrary, two-faced and economically motivated use of force in international affairs. I am worried by the selective respect for international law.

I do not believe in razor wire. I maintain that Slovenia is obliged to help refugees who come to our country, in line with the principles and values protected by the Slovenian Constitution and on the basis of our international legal obligations. I am convinced that this is to the benefit of Slovenia and its citizens. I believe that without social justice there is neither democracy nor freedom. In other words, some of you will say, I am a typical left-wing multi-culti activist.

Both descriptions of my values above are authentic and sincere. You may agree or disagree with my views of the world, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. One of the attractions of democracy is that it allows us, and even expects us, to do so. But I insist that the first and second views are entirely compatible, that I have not (yet) lost my mind, and that I am not making fun of you either.

The labels “Slovenian redneck” and “multi-culti activist” largely reflect an artificially created, but very real, polarization in our society. Out of naivety, opportunism or cynicism, we have walked into the populist trap of black-and-white binary thinking and started believing in a world in which one can live and survive only at the expense and to the detriment of some of the most basic principles and values.

In this world, patriotism excludes openness to neighbors and to the world. A true patriot is someone who dislikes other nations.

In this world, your culture threatens mine.

In this world, love of family is expressed by discriminating against gays and lesbians.

In this world, security can be achieved only by restricting human rights and political freedoms and by ignoring international obligations and international law.

In this world, a refugee or economic migrant is always a threat, so the issue can be resolved only at the expense of our solidarity and humanity, rationality, economic logic and demographic needs.

In this world, you have to be for Trump if you are against Assad. And vice versa.

In this world, you can spend only as much as you earn. In it, social justice and social security threaten economic success.

The benefit populists gain from false dilemmas is obvious. They create an artificial conflict between the institutions of liberal democracy and values that matter greatly to a large part of the population. Once we manage to convince people that they must choose between their own security and helping refugees, between family values and the rights of the LGBT community, between public order and human rights and freedoms, between love of their homeland and openness to others and to difference, between their own social security and solidarity, the answer is known in advance. To hell with liberal democracy, human rights and humanism; I will look after myself and my own first. The people who think this way are not to blame; the politics that created, enabled and exploits an artificially polarized, black-and-white vision of society and the world is. The solution is not to label people who love their homeland, security and family as narrow-minded yokels, but to stop leaving the interpretation of these values exclusively to populists and their opportunistic imitators. To defeat the populist polarization that threatens democracy and freedom, we need a reconciliation between values. Not so that we all think the same, but so that we realize we can be content, safe and happy, and still be free, and still be human. This reconciliation does not need marble monuments, only politics with ethical principles and moral authority.