The question of measure should be related not only to Siderov's drinking, but also to the reactions to the latest incident. Now the moral dilemma on social networks is - do we have the right to joke, or not? By Ivan Landzhev:
As a classic opportunist, that is, a Bulgarian politician, Volen is a person who could not stand his own excess, his unpunished arbitrariness, which lasted for decades. Despite all the reasons over the years, the law did not punish him with justice, society did not punish him with ostracism, the media did not punish him with indifference… and in the end, he began to systematically punish himself. And the body and the soul are fragile things, and both are not designed to tolerate such dissoluteness. The fall that befell him has befallen many other Bulgarian rulers, who also could not stand under the weight of everything they took. It weighs heavily. But specifically with Volen, things have always been public. And excessive.
When does it become too much? How much is too much?
The question of the measure should be related not only to Volen's drinking, not only to his actions over the years, but also to the reactions to the incident now. We can agree that photographing a fallen person in order to publicly humiliate him is a pitiful thing. In fact, it is very difficult to find the motivation for such behavior. In a sense, it is also terribly unnatural. You see a person rolling on the sidewalk and you have two options – either help or walk away. The effort required to do the third - to pull out your phone and direct a video, becoming a tabloid yourself - is a very strange effort. It instantly puts you below the person you are humiliating.
We live in a time when passive contemplation wants to rise to stardom. It's a shame, but you still have to be there to do this stupidity, you have to see the person on the sidewalk in real time. And what are we to do who haven't been there? Now the moral dilemma on social media is - do we have the right to joke or not?
I've been joking about Volen's stupidity for many years - both when he's sober and when he's using. Both while he was in power and after he left it, but it couldn't leave him (the latter contains his tragedy). Sometimes I ask myself the same question - how much is too much? The truth is that he is interesting to me as a character because he is not a bookless person. He is literary tempted, in his youth he wrote his bad poetry - who among us isn't? As a poet, Siderov is the exact opposite of Dalchev, who wrote only his good poems. But all the same, it is more important to imagine him in his quietest hours. Because there are such. When he is alone with himself - and no matter how many events you go to, how many people know you, you still remain alone with yourself - this man is certainly saying some things to himself. He is certainly facing some truths and processing them in his own way. And, because he is not stupid, he is aware that he is talking nonsense. And that he is choking on them.
He is aware that with his misanthropic babbling he has created the ground for every subsequent patriotic enterprise in the Bulgarian parliament. He knows that he has written insane books about world plots and conspiracies. He knows for sure that he is trading in hatred and has become an expert at it. He knows that he is overdoing it. And he is trying to come to terms with the facts, so he is overdoing it even more.
The Bulgarian must form a new habit
It is no wonder that such a person - brought up in the unbridled excess of Bulgarian politics, in this barbaric careerism, where one does not even steal in a civilized way - goes overboard.
But all the verbal arrows are flying now precisely because a Bulgarian politician is overreacting, and not just some person like us who got drunk. This is not “punching down”, it's the opposite. It's not some musician, artist or socialite who is overreacting... It's a person who until recently made decisions for your life. Let's say it again together out loud – Volen Siderov until recently made decisions for all of our lives. And he is not able to make decisions for his. And his fall is not from today, it began a long time ago. In the video, Volen does nothing surprising or new, nothing that he hasn't done for years – we know that even without a video. And we certainly shouldn't film the fallen person, we don't need to fall with him, but it's not strange that we're talking and joking now. Especially if we joked before, while he was very, very high up. I would even say that it is important to do it all the time – without waiting for someone in power to flash a paparazzi video to dare. Despite his historically trained reflexes to burn his brains and tell his jokes secretly, the Bulgarian must create a new habit – to learn to joke with the authorities openly. Because otherwise they start joking with him, and this is already the longest joke in the world.
This text expresses the opinion of the author and may not coincide with the positions of the Bulgarian editorial office and the DV as a whole.