Burnt Election Goulash from Grandma

26. 4. 2010 / Karel Dolejší

Actors Mádl and Issová with their hideous cannibalistic video, besides having put themselves in a shameful situation, put a last pin on the upcoming election chances of the Czech right wing. Middle aged and older people will judge their "piece" and will thus hesitate even more, on whether to give their vote to a right wing party. And I am convinced that even a hefty amount of young voters, especially those from outside of Prague, will evaluate the whole thing likewise -- what is too much is too much...

The immediate consequence of that right wing propaganda videoclip for the upcoming elections are not advisable to be overestimate. To say that "it will not work" and radical confabulations about "stopping" similar tendencies are manifestations of common moral panic.

However, beyond the smoke of this election goulash agitation is a well-solidified and difficult theme of discrimination of the elderly and the weakening of inter-generational solidarity, which - thanks to Martin Škabrah - Britské Listy wrote intensely about last year.

Problem which of course Mádl and Issová did not create and which cannot be dismissed, much less solve with crucifying them or the videoclip director by the moral knights of the moment. The clip doesn't change in any fundamental way the upcoming elections.

It is not just the "not handing over moral values" by the older generation to the younger one, about which Milan Valach writes on Britské Listy, but, at the same time, and perhaps even more, what is missing is a shared expectation of a positive future for all of us. That is not surprising, for the frustration and insecurity about the future is changing into irritability and agressiveness by our younger ones. That because -- and not only in politics -- nobody offers anything really promising for their future. They are, in this ageing society, just a minority facing up the perspective of a life with much less social security than the current retired people. And they know that very well.

On the other hand, the older value system and life orientation still present at many of the members of my generation was never shared with the young and they are mostly just fighting to secure their own selfish private interests, regardless of the inter-generational connections.

That is all very deeply rooted within the structure of young Czechs' personality and no momentary appeal or propaganda can change it. In a way, thanks to the neoliberal propaganda of the 1990s we lost to right wing mentality part of our already not so numerous youngsters, who know nothing else than "to get to their goal", no matter who or what gets destroyed on the way.

In any case, how it will be in the future for this society is not something that will be resolved by this Parliamentary elections, whose only certain winner is already at this moment the "ČEZ" (the corrupted Czech electric company) party... To create a new and trusted social contract inclusive of all age categories is something that not even the Social Democrats (ČSSD) nor whichever other, at least a bit trustworthy political party, can easily dare to, because it would have to first assess the real chances of this society (no one want to tell frank uncomfortable truths to voters...)

That is why we cannot cast out even the possibility that we -- without any connection to the deplorable videoclip -- will have to face, in the following years, some sort of inter-generational civil war. Let's hope that if we indeed get into one, that it be a cold war...

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