Written by: Ben Andoni
A few days ago, Berisha, the leader of the Democratic Party, complained about the media for helping Rama. In response to his predecessor's public complaint, the Albanian prime minister, referring to a statistical measure from the AMA, cynically emphasized the superiority of Berisha and the opposition in the media, despite their claims that they were limited!
Paradoxically, the cynical and full of jokes language of the Rama-Berisha tandem, dense without any cultural reference, is very far from the rhetoric that the few but valuable people of Albanian thought have used in the best of times. Using more urban vocabulary and urban or folk characters, today's politicians, not excluding Rama and Berisha, are striking for their cultural level and the inability to make syntheses, limited and very superficial knowledge, but more than anything the lack of vision for the Albania of the future. The consequence: Albanians have fled abroad en masse. The ethics of communication have been replaced by today's aggressive rhetoric of Albanian politics, which no longer knows any scruples. Even when it comes to major interests of the country. The laboratory for studying this phenomenon is the monologue, dialogue, and words in parliament of the participating majority that eclipse even those few clear minds that try in vain to change the course.
The meaning of the cynicism of our politicians today, and surprisingly of the entire world we live in, lies in the lack of basic culture and the confusion of terms and situations. Berisha makes constant slips of the tongue, while Rama's superficiality with long, tiring sentences.
By the way, today's cynicism is very far from the true characterization of Cynic Philosophy. This school, considered one of the most interesting philosophical currents (born in the 4th century BC), was based on a simple life, in harmony with nature, without social conventions, wealth and power. The various orders of the Catholic clergy adapted it to their own needs for their followers. The classical Cynics considered humans as reasoning animals, where the purpose of life and the achievement of happiness was related to virtue, always in peace with nature and with a sense of reason to live extremely free from social constraints.
The only thing our politics has done (the stylistic figures have long since disappeared) is that it has turned people into just as cynical. The political cynicism of citizens is being shown by ignoring the DP in protests and indifference to Berisha's daily outings, as well as the open disregard for the tiresome rhetoric (long monologues, in front of people forced to follow him), arrogant and extremely self-satisfied by Prime Minister Rama. On the whole, but to prove this statement a national survey would be needed, the conviction of various people is that: Politicians, institutions and our democratic system do not contain many values of trust, as a result of the selfishness and immorality of the current situation. The food for this mentality comes from corruption, the extortion of public money, the greed of a group of bureaucrats who are unparalleled extortionists (the wine colony and the ANA tenders are crazy) and from the failure of politics to build a normal Albania. The media, on the other hand, lends a helping hand with the mass of unbridled negative news and therefore, anyone can see today that: individuals are not simply withdrawing from participation (not in vain, the parties have launched recruitment campaigns!), but are hating politics. This is, in fact, the modern Albanian, the one who is being robbed, the one who is being misled by offices (the cadastre is the most heartless example), by the cynicism of the Justice System (which is increasing its unexamined files immeasurably), by a policy that keeps the same people in the same cycle, usurping everything from them (Ahmetaj's accusations about the SP would highlight this reality), by the obvious lack of jobs, for which you need to have endless political references and a large number of other things.
This kind of cynicism is alive, so people feel very distant from politics and its promises, while hatred towards the extortionists is taking on a scale that translates into an unprecedented public apathy (after all, nothing changes). The amplification of their stories and those of others who deceive the public on social media, where disinformation spreads purposefully and freely, has completely destroyed trust in institutions. Ironically, in Albania there is already a lack of in-depth addressing of the problems of education and the system of logic of how to deal with the entire education edifice; how to alleviate the burden of the citizen in front of the health system; as well as on the other hand, the future premises of economic development, where a few hands always win, which then influence even the making of laws.
Politics is directly taking over the media space, turning us into "Politics as a Spectacle", where in addition to Rama's podcast that has turned into a monologue because that's all that is conveyed, and Berisha's daily speeches, we have politicians who are present at every moment, far from real intellectual debates. And it doesn't end there: Populists on both sides use anti-intellectual rhetoric and mock the traditional debate that serves the country, turning politics into "entertainment" for us. The truth no longer has any value. The rhetoric of Berisha and Rama today ignores the fact and situation of the Albanian in favor of creating myths of purity and abstract things. Rama's wonders with satellites, energy ships, and things like that are being "forgotten" today, just like Berisha's. The latter does not relinquish the throne of the DP, Rama holds on tightly to the SP, even with a discourse that hurts about his selfishness and complacency and identification with the state. The address to Spiropali, if what the media reports is true, is more than disturbing. Consequences: Parliament filled with Zeqine-type MPs and others who use contempt and insults over coherent and evidence-based arguments. Political cynicism in democracy today, according to theory, constitutes a deeply rooted and enduring attitude that sees politicians, institutions, and the system as untrustworthy, corrupt, and selfish. This disillusionment fosters disengagement from political issues, apathy, and a sensitivity to misinformation, with the media covering it all in a "spiral of cynicism." This is one of the pictures of Albanian political history in the first half of the 21st century (this trend will likely continue in the next 50 years). Life without these is cynical, Trotsky said of his time, unless a... "brilliant idea arises that lifts you above personal misery, above weakness, above all kinds of treachery and baseness." But the ideas have long since faded from our minds. Father Anton Harapi once attempted an explanation in his well-known article. 'Where will we start and where will we end up', demanding that we must know well the spiritual basis on which we must start true culture. "If you look closely at the soul of the Albanian, you will find that he has become a self-made Albanian, without even considering that the Albanian, as an Albanian, is his own master and capable of organization and civilization, and that in our country, if not us, there is no rooster that crows, but we will command, we are capable of organizing good and good works for the state and the nation, so much so that even foreigners will envy us." He obeys strangers more than his own, and no matter how much they adorn him with a man of unparalleled virtue and quality, it is enough to recognize his father and mother, to know that he is Albanian, to lower the price and importance for him. To show a previous and unfounded work, here is what I mean: "the work of Albanians", 'as in Albania', etc., etc." (Hylli i Dritës VI, 1930). After a hundred years, Albanians feel disconnected from their so-called political elites who convey only emptiness and apathy, or more precisely, violated by a tiresome spiral of cynicism, where nothing is believed anymore. (Homo Albanicus)
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