Tuesday, June 28, 2005
Today is Vidovdan, anniversary of many things....
If you are English this is the day of the victory of the Battle of Trafalgar. If you are from the Balkans however, this is a sadder day, the defeat at Kosovo Polje, and the anniversary of the assasination in Sarajevo of Franz-Ferdinand
What many people don't realize is that not only Serbs fought there. There were men led by Vuk Kosaca who led the troops from what is now Hercegovina. There were men from Bosnia as well led by the king of Bosnia and the father of Vlad Tepes was there (but he left early).
I had at least two ancestors present at this battle.
So I guess I get to comment.
This battle and it's story changed a lot about Europe. The first reports were that it was a victory, then a defeat.
The truth is that neither side actually won. Both leaders died. Both sides lost a LOT of their armies.
And it doesn't do to pretty up a military defeat by calling it a spiritual victory as the old poems in Serbian do.
A military defeat is a military defeat and it cannot be mistaken for or disguised as a spirtual victory. I think the effort to portray it as something other than what it was was more unhealthy even than being defeated was.
While I believe the European Union is a farce, and that the Euro is a passing financial fad, I still believe that nationalism as it was known only a few decades ago is on it's way out.
The world is actually moveing toward a more fluid understanding of nationhood, a more Medieval notion of this and perhaps more and more culture doesn't need to be sharply defined.
The U.S. has lived with that reality for some time now, moved from the Melting Pot concept which required assimilation and sameness to something more flexiable and diverse.
Europe will have to do the same.
Especially this has to happen in the Balkans if there is to be peace.
The latest speeches of Vuk Draskovic notwithstanding.
What many people don't realize is that not only Serbs fought there. There were men led by Vuk Kosaca who led the troops from what is now Hercegovina. There were men from Bosnia as well led by the king of Bosnia and the father of Vlad Tepes was there (but he left early).
I had at least two ancestors present at this battle.
So I guess I get to comment.
This battle and it's story changed a lot about Europe. The first reports were that it was a victory, then a defeat.
The truth is that neither side actually won. Both leaders died. Both sides lost a LOT of their armies.
And it doesn't do to pretty up a military defeat by calling it a spiritual victory as the old poems in Serbian do.
A military defeat is a military defeat and it cannot be mistaken for or disguised as a spirtual victory. I think the effort to portray it as something other than what it was was more unhealthy even than being defeated was.
While I believe the European Union is a farce, and that the Euro is a passing financial fad, I still believe that nationalism as it was known only a few decades ago is on it's way out.
The world is actually moveing toward a more fluid understanding of nationhood, a more Medieval notion of this and perhaps more and more culture doesn't need to be sharply defined.
The U.S. has lived with that reality for some time now, moved from the Melting Pot concept which required assimilation and sameness to something more flexiable and diverse.
Europe will have to do the same.
Especially this has to happen in the Balkans if there is to be peace.
The latest speeches of Vuk Draskovic notwithstanding.