Reactionary times
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Johannes Saar | |
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Reactionary times – this is what the creative intelligentsia of the great eastern
neighbour is currently complaining about. They no longer criticise or
seek alternatives. Loyalty to the state and a personality cult are gathering
force instead. The Kremlin is strengthening its hold on the provinces and
cutting the throats of journalists and disobedient vassals. Social criticism
has been replaced by metaphysics and orthodoxy. Artists have escaped to
esoteric practices.However, are things in Estonia really different? In a sense, they are. Instead of a harsh monarch, the triumph of our market capitalism is looked after by parliamentary right-wingers. The subtle difference between coalition partners lies only in the sequence of priorities. The mandate for the victorious advance of the free market economy has been acquired by a seemingly more democratic method – colourful horror stories of the socialist planned economy. Fear of this kind of past returning, or encouraging it in any way, has caused a great deal of overreaction. Socialist trauma has been treated in Estonia for the past fifteen years by means of the conservative revolution of Reagan and Thatcher, where the cowboy capitalists’ right to shoot first is united with corporations’ licence to take the last shot. The fact that the first prime minister of the newly independent Estonia received the Milton Friedman Freedom Award last year indicates that Estonia has made it. The hard core market economy model has forced the entire country into a liberal party – people, including artists, can only choose between different forms of entrepreneurship. They are not pushed into anything esoteric. Oh no. They are much needed in the labour market, and are integrated – under the slogan of the creative economy – into the alleged flexible ability of late capitalism to create ‘soft values’, deal with human issues on an intimate friendly scale and produce co-operation forms where office routine, exploitation and alienation are reputedly excluded. |
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How little such words actually mean was vividly demonstrated by the
extensive street rioting in Tallinn*; the society of private property owners
suffered heavy financial losses under the attack of the looters, cars were
overturned, posh boutiques were set on fire and passers-by were roughly
handled. Smashed glass windows revealed the fragility of the new social
contracts and the dissatisfaction with people’s determined place in the ‘free
world’ smouldering underneath. Efforts towards a similar understanding
of history have come to nothing. Different ideologies have been polarised
into hostile storm troopers and Estonia has been stretched to the breaking
point, squeezed between sectarian ideas of the past. The inability of the
liberal society to create a cultural consensus has made it possible for the old
nationalist and chauvinist ideas to re-emerge. The moderation of discussions
between them, however, was entrusted to the sparse rows of underpaid
riot police. Reactionary times.
* Riots took place between 26–28 April 2007 in the centre of Tallinn. Johannes Saar (1965), art critic and curator. Director of the Centre for Contemporary Arts, Estonia. See also www.cca.ee |
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| Estonian Art 1/07 (20) | Published by the Estonian Institute 2007 | ISSN 1406-5711 (Online) | ISSN 1406-3549 (Printed version) | einst@einst.ee | tel: (372) 631 43 55 | fax: (372) 631 43 56 | |
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