How would they know they have the power if they don’t abuse it? In the years of Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, 1945 to 1991, I regarded Republic of Slovenia to be the most advanced in the federation, most advanced not only economically but generally, as a community of mankind. It looked to me Slovenians were the only people in the federation lacking the infamous Balkan mentality. Then the federation died (rather, it was killed, grWeekly070429), federal units became independent countries and Slovenia sprung into NATO and EU, way ahead of Croatia and other Balkan units. And then the Slovenian-Croatian skirmishes started, border disputes, fishing rights on Adriatic and stuff like that. I almost could not believe it: ‘my Slovenians' doing that? They entered EU with the Slovenian-Croatian border dispute and now, from an EU member power position, they are blocking (i.e., blackmailing) Croatian path to EU because of the dispute. ‘My Slovenians', really?

Was I naive to believe that Slovenians are not of Balkan mentality? Or, maybe, it’s more general: Slovenia is not the only state community tempted to hypocrisy. "Every nation must come to terms with the fact, through the force of collective self-interest is so great, that national policy must be based upon it; yet also the sensitive conscience recognizes that the moral obligation of the individual transcends his particular community. Loyalty to the community is therefore morally tolerable only if it includes values wider than those of the community." [Reinhold Niebuhr: The irony of American history, The University of Chicago Press, 1952]

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