Evgeny Dainov's comment:
Bulgaria is neither the DPRK nor even Turkmenistan. It is not isolated from world processes, but is a part of them. The more powerful they are, the less important are the local monkeys of Peevski, Toshko, the kopecks and the like, politicians untied from any anchors of decency. They can jump around a plenary hall, squat and show their shame, break equipment and make their characteristic sounds. Precisely in the current world situation, these knee-jerks of theirs will not be the factor determining the future of the country. It is determined by much more powerful processes occurring elsewhere in our one world system.
The example of the war in Ukraine is obvious. If the Ukrainians win, Putin's subversive actions against the civilized world will weaken sharply. All over Europe, the different types of kopecks will stop making a noise, in Germany the blocked shipments to Ukraine will suddenly be unblocked, the heads of Hungary, Serbia, Slovakia and North Macedonia will suddenly have their crests drooping. Trumpism in the US will also weaken, and the Chinese will postpone the takeover of Taiwan for another generation.
The world of ideas
Less obvious, but perhaps ultimately more important, is the impact on us of the processes taking place in the US.
People do the things they do because of the ideas they have about the world and their place in it. Since the beginning of the 20th century – since there are mass and fast communications connecting all corners of the world in one idea-information system – these notions are generated in the bowels of mass culture. They are made, again, from the beginning of the 20th century (and in any case – after the end of the First World War) in the USA and then go around the world. This is the meaning of the maxim, born sometime after the Second World War in England, that “the world of ideas turns from West to East – from America to Europe”.
The vulgarization of the public language, the brutalization of public morals and the barbarization of political behavior started in the USA sometime towards the end of the 1990s. Spreading across Europe, in the first 15 years or so of the 21st century, all of this gave rise to Orbanism, Borisovism, Vucicism, Miskosztika, Austrian and German fascists, gloomy Polish clericalism and the provincial Putinism of Fico in Slovakia. People forgot how to enjoy the world and how to help each other; were taught to look in the world for reasons of offense and to hate each other.
In recent months, it is from America that salvation is looming. It is there that a new, civilized and philanthropic set of ideas and ideas is created to put an end to the poisonous darkness in which we have been drowning for so long.
Coalition of Optimism
Even with her appearance as a presidential candidate, Kamala Harris announced that she is gathering around her “warriors of joy” against the obscurantism spread by Donald Trump. Elevating joy as a major political category was a huge risk that Harris took and skilfully played. How so, commentators asked – joy? This is not serious. There is no joy in politics.
Yes, but no. The policy – this is when you work for the common good. If you go to this task with joy of soul and serenity of eye, the common good you will achieve will be pleasing to all. If you start with hatred and the search for culprits – you become Trump who hates everybody.
In a matter of weeks, Harris collected an unprecedented amount of donations from ordinary people and managed to form a coalition of optimism that went far beyond the boundaries of the Democratic Party. Apparently, Americans are tired of hating each other, frowning and following Donald Trump's instructions, such as drinking bleach against Covid or hating women, black people, liberal people and foreigners.
Decency and kindness against malice and hatred
It is a cultural revolution leading to a higher degree of civilization – if we assume that the foundation of civilization is, as I wrote here not long ago, goodness of manners and feminine sensibility. As Harris herself constantly repeats: “Leadership is not about crushing everyone down, but about lifting everyone up”. “Below”, to recall the great social anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss, is darkness, violence and savagery; “above” is light, reason, good attitude towards others.
Yes, American society is split into two equal parts. One follows Kamala Harris' Coalition of Optimism. The other continues to follow Donald Trump and is apparently strong enough to give him increasing support every time he calls for the hatred of various categories of people and especially – the women. The horror of women, by the way, is also found “below”, in the darkness inhabited by evil spirits and goblins.
Even if Harris does not become the president of the United States, in her coalition those new concepts and ideas were already born that will start to roam around the world and will also reach our village. They will restore faith in decency, in civilization and in kindness. And they will push the bearers of malice, hatred and violence where they belong – to the dustbin of history. Whatever monkey acts have prepared us for the next parliament.