The Return of the Iron Curtain
With the victory of Milos Zeman as president for five more years in the Czech Republic, with his anti-immigrant platform and suggestions of a referendum on membership of the EU, one feels like 50% of the country who voted for him just want the Iron Curtain to return. In a sense, it never really went away. Sure we can travel and people move to the Czech Republic like I did, first in the early 90s and then again permanently ten years later. There is free movement of goods and people, for the most part, so the Iron Curtain isnt there anymore. But the mentality of people on both sides has changed little, even 28 years after the revolution. Czechs are afraid of the West and many, especially older people, are more at ease in the "Soviet" sphere .. like Milos Zeman they look to Russia and China. They think Brussels wants to tell them how much cinnamon they can use or will take away their goat cheese. Such little things seem to matter a lot. So keep you cinnamon and goat cheese and let Putin be your boss. I guess if you are locked in a bunker your whole life its hard to care about the outside world or wonder what freedom might be. What is freedom? It sounds scary. I'm reminded of the book by Erich Fromm, "Escape from Freedom", published in 1941. It seems so much has changed, and yet so little. Are we doomed to keep repeating our mistakes, "first as tragedy, and then as farce" as Marx said?
On the western side of the border, it must be said, they often look with disdain and false pride at those to the east. Those poor Slavs dont know how to rule themselves they say. The same as they talk about African nations. Czech girls working as au pairs in the West are called niggers by stupid Italians and snobby Germans, etc etc. That shows how they view the world. Racism and classism are endemic in Europe, sadly. The fact is that "Eastern" Europe is a border zone between Russia and Germany. Its the fate of geography, Poland is a buffer zone through which troops march at each other. And we are kept poor and told we must be a second tier Europe by those in Brussels. The Mexico of Germany. That's the perception, and thus the resentment, thus they vote for Zeman. Drahos's big mistake was not confronting these issues head on, to lay out clearly and effectively the case against Zeman. He didnt seek lofty ideals of human and Czech potential in the line of Havel, he just posited himself as "not Zeman" and in the end it wasnt enough.
I remembered an article I read in 2009 about how the deer on either side of the former Iron Curtain continue to stay on their sides of the zone, they have internalized the need to remain on their side, just as we seem to have. But a recent article contradicts that interpretation, we are projecting our fears on the deer. In reality before '89 the border zone was a safe haven and there was plenty of food there, only after the Iron Curtain came down and hunters returned, then the deer avoided it and stayed on their sides. Like the deer, we should ignore the borders. Go to Berlin, where the Wall once stood, go to Israel and see the wall around the West Bank, go to the US/Mexican border, etc etc .. are we free? Walls divide us, they keep us trapped in as much as they might protect us. We want more freedom, not less. No more walls and universal human rights. It is what we need, it is what we deserve.
Insightful post - thank you for writing this. The parallels between what is happening here in the U.S. and what is happening in the Czech Republic are very interesting. It seems you are saying that some people resent the countries of Western Europe and perceive them to have relegated them to inferiority ("second tier"). Is this what you are saying? It is striking because this is the same sentiment invoked by much of the rural population in the U.S. - that the urban and educated population looked down their nose at them. The response in both cases seems to be one of "we don't need you - we will do our own thing, even if that thing is authoritarian and harmful to our own self-interest."
I think resentment and ignorance are both at play. Many people do not travel, don't care about other countries and have no idea what exists outside their borders. In the former Warsaw Pact, people were told the West was a land of wonder and opportunity. They watched Dallas in the 90s and laughed at JR and those crazy Texans. But many people are afraid of what changes joining with the West could bring them. They don't believe giving power to Brussels will help them. They don't even like Prague and city slicker intellectuals. Its very similar to the divide in the USA as well, I agree. When I spoke of "second tier" Europe I meant the plan floated at times by the ECB to create a two-tier EU with a core group with more benefits and an outlying area with less voting power, basically. This is not a good idea IMHO because it causes resentment. Admittedly CZ doesn't have the Euro, we still have our own currency which is actually good that we retain sovereign rights and float the crown to the Euro etc ... Resentment and Ressentiment are strong forces at play in politics today, set up by income inequality, materialism, and Neoliberal austerity programmes. It cant go on like it is. Basically Western Europe doesnt seem much to care if the East has autocratic leadership. But this is myopic because the trend can spread .. look at Germany, the former East Germany is creating political havoc (and lets not forget the money behind Brexit and these ethnonationalist campaigns is murky with ties to Putin, etc) (ie who profits when Merkel falls?). Its a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy - the West expects bad leaders and corruption in the East and does very little to counter it, and the East lives up to the stereotype. This is the tragedy of Zeman's reelection .. we are fulfilling the stereotypes the West has of us. I say "us" because I've lived here for 17 years, though I will always be a foreigner here.