Historian Aleksandar Raković said to Glas Srpske that Western Europe is entering a new era of totalitarianism, and the earliest signs of that totalitarian society were reflected during the migrant crisis, when various wire fences and concrete walls were erected across Europe. Then, as he says, it continued when freedom of movement was restricted during the coronavirus pandemic.

“We are now seeing a third wave of totalitarianism caused by the Ukraine crisis. Freedom of speech and thought is being restricted, and private property is being targeted. I think that the European Union is slipping into complete totalitarianism. And maybe that is even somebody’s plan. Previously open Europe is now becoming increasingly closed and conservative. The centers of power in Brussels have used all of the aforementioned crises to install various repressive measures. They justify it by claiming that they are acting in the best interest of their citizens. Where it all actually leads is into total lockdown and creating Orwellian control systems. They want us to think that we should think the way they think we should think,” emphasized the historian.

Raković also believes that even during the Cold War there was more freedom than there is today, because what then looked like a world divided, were actually, apart from that, two blocs which served to correct one another.

“Even the socialist and capitalist societies in an earlier era were more humane towards their citizens than today. Truth told, they were ideologically repressive, especially in the East, but that was also an era of expansion in science and culture, and even in social justice. Let’s just remember a time when we could travel across Europe with a Yugoslavian passport, without administrative or any other limitations. That is not the case today. Travel is being restricted, walls are being erected, and freedom of speech and thought is being limited. Some sort of an abrupt awakening of the people is unrealistic. The citizens of Europe have long been beaten down.”

“They have been psychologically molded for years and there simply is no potential for a rebellion or some sort of a peaceful disobedience against all that. When something does happen, like the revolt in France a couple years ago, it gets squashed quickly. In order for those processes to be successful, they must have goals, and therefore also a strategy and a tactic. They cannot be Facebook processes. That won’t happen,” believes Raković.