I've also lived in the balkans and my work involved tourism, I have to say this does sound like a complaint made primarily by germans and americans. I'm not sure if it's because germans and americans are the ones who get an earful of it most often due to heavier national involvement in the yugoslav wars and/or if we take it as a more of a personal affront.
The triumphal liberal cosmopolitanism of the 90s is starting to fade in Europe and the US, what's left looks more and more like cynical window dressing for brutal realpolitik. Nationalism, irredentist attitudes, ethnic cleansing and military conflict seem to be very much back on the menu as of late.
I see all of those as negative developments, but it's maybe time to wonder who's living in the past, them or us.
As the first generation out of the Portuguese dictorship, I really feel we are slowly back to the days before the Wall fell down.
How everything used to be during the first decade of EU is really going away, and I have no hurry to live under the same kind of goverments that my parents had to endure.
Many of the "nationalists" have no clue what it actually means, when the folks that vote on them as protest, discover the real meaning it will be too late.
>Nationalism, irredentist attitudes, ethnic cleansing and military conflict seem to be very much back on the menu as of late
Hardly surprising when the last 3+ years saw the biggest wealth transfer and biggest erosion of the middle class in history. And the average people who suffered that decline aren't comforted by the typical "ackchyually, the economy's great, look how well the stock market is doing" when they have too much month left at the end of their paychecks and no chance of getting out of the serfdom cycle.
The ownership class will do anything to stop fascism except allow the public to vote on the continuous upward transfer of wealth from the workforce to the already wealthy. War and nationalism are a surefire way to distract the public and muzzle critics, to tell a story about national greatness stolen by outsiders instead of by your very own titans of industry and politicians who have more in common with their opposite number in other countries than with anyone foolish or unlucky enough to be born outside of the circles of capital and access to capital.
The triumphal liberal cosmopolitanism of the 90s is starting to fade in Europe and the US, what's left looks more and more like cynical window dressing for brutal realpolitik. Nationalism, irredentist attitudes, ethnic cleansing and military conflict seem to be very much back on the menu as of late.
I see all of those as negative developments, but it's maybe time to wonder who's living in the past, them or us.