Egoism Among Serbs: From the Ethnopsychological Feature to the Modern Age Syndrome Cover Image

Егоизам код Срба: од етнопсихоlошке црте до синдрома модерног доба
Egoism Among Serbs: From the Ethnopsychological Feature to the Modern Age Syndrome

Author(s): Đorđe Vuković
Subject(s): Social Philosophy, Individual Psychology, Social psychology and group interaction, Crowd Psychology: Mass phenomena and political interactions, Identity of Collectives
Published by: Fakultet političkih nauka Univerziteta u Banjoj Luci
Keywords: Egoism; individualisation; ethnopsychological features; national character; politics; intellectual elite;

Summary/Abstract: In difficult and challenging political, economic and cultural circumstances of the present time, altruism and solidarity among people are being challenged, and troubles caused by the material and existential uncertainty often result in the insistence on one’s own particularity only, “I” imposes itself as the highest principle and the greatest good, without consideration (or harm) to another man, to a part of a community, or to the community as a whole. Modern man has accepted and internalised ruthlessness as a method used to realise one’s own interests, while extreme individualism and the concept of civil society favour and nourish such characteristics among mankind. This is when the general, national interest becomes fiction; view to the collective destiny becomes blurred due to narrow and selfish ambitions of individuals. In this paper we aim at the reactualisation of the problem of “commonalty” (“rajetinski”) mentality among Serbian people, especially among its mercenary intellectuals, as evidenced by numerous authors, from Slobodan Jovanović, Vladimir Velmar-Janković, Vladimir Dvorniković, to Mile Lompar, Đuro Šušnjić and Dobrica Ćosić. This ethnopsychological characteristics, according to Jovan Cvijić, was shaped under specific socio-political, historical and cultural circumstances and conditions, among helpless Orthodox population that was subjected to terror for centuries. Because of the incessant struggle to maintain bare survival, surrounded by suffering and fears, the servile mentality of submissive and dispirited people has developed, with distinct characteristics of insidiousness, humility, fatalism, moral mimicry, pragmatism, deceit and egoism. Have these characteristics radicalised among younger generations in the meantime, and to what extent?

  • Issue Year: 2/2012
  • Issue No: 4
  • Page Range: 257-267
  • Page Count: 11
  • Language: Serbian