GJUNER ISMAIL

SHALL WE MEET?

According to the (very) old comprehension of the civil society, it was a society were the vitality of its functions was provided through matured mechanisms of political, and only political articulation of citizen’s wishes/will. That entire mechanism meant a concept of individuality, right to elect and to choose, net of institutions – most often understood as a governmental apparatus or, in some cases, a delegated representing sovereignty at the sovereign (a parliament, or parliamentary conducted monarch, a president and so on).

Within this comprehension of the matters, somewhere on the edges of the society, there stood the public, in most cases instrumented to the level of an assistant to the dominating political currencies or, at best, "serving the state interests"! There was no room for the other possible forms of articulating the will, the needs or, at best, it was a mere spending of the so-called free time, which meant a hobby-activities, support to the supreme philanthropy (under the auspices of an adequate clerical structure), and, at worst, a conspiratorial organizing, which usually led to the so-called liberating manner, various forms of revolutionary radicalism etc.
But, regarding the historical and technological circumstances, the civil society – however robust it was – still obtained a realistic survival as an overall process of development of the civilization, and even more important, a realistic foundation for fulfilling the apparent gaps in everyday life of the citizen, gaps that brought the citizen down to a proclaimed, not a real individual or, at best, to a politicised citizen-voter on the elections.
Reading some resumes of those times (the middle of the 19th to the middle of the 20th century), one is fascinated by people’s naivety regarding their understanding of the social engagement, their simplified picture of the society, their system of values, their concept for the individual freedom! It is a collection of some kind of religious norms, several phrases about the patriotism for their state, obedience of the laws, institutions. And that is all!
Of course, by the middle of the 20th century, matters started to get different dimensions. In an environment of highly discredited political structures, visible from the citizens’ aspect only through the (pre)electoral events, the individual, the citizen experienced enlightments of various character. Raised in the spirit of individualism, corroborated by the adequate churches (churches are, finally, allies to the individual), reinforced with the advises (the information) by the freed public – the media – the citizens begin to identify the so-called individual interests – too trivial and unprofitable for the politics, but very important locally, for their everyday life! Therein we could locate the moment when citizens really left their homes, not towards the streets, but towards the political scenes, not with nihilism towards the so-called classical politics, but with a new, different rhetoric, with different organizational forms, with different, realistic sincerity in the social engagement and by insisting on a prompt solution of the everyday hardships. In most cases the local aspect (ecology, rights and freedoms of the citizen, an "external monitoring of the governmental apparatus", protection of the marginalized individuals/groups, continuous, not only occasional philanthropy etc.), soon overgrew the so-called local boundaries and became part of the common, global process of citizen’s appearance on the political scene.
That is the sketch for the biography of His Majesty – the Citizen, whose reading was directly inspired by one of the coryphйes of the civic individualism – TORO!!
And WE should answer, here and now:
Being in the sphere of this citizen defined – conceived - that way, are we merely executing a "temporary job" in the world of the liberated, waiting for our turn in the waiting room to enter the premises of the satanized politics or, without any nihilism towards it (the politics) we mind our own business (breeding the civil society), and repeating every day: We are HERE! Be careful what are you doing!