Empathy Pains

So said Boris Tadic this week, reminding us of our obligation to vote and thereby give voice to our dissatisfaction and bitterness that we all feel because we are not president of the republic.

Hm...

I was reminded by one reader that I should pay attention to the CONTEXT in which this enormity was stated, that perhaps I was overreacting to something misquoted, misconstrued, or misplaced and out of context. But I am sorry: the sentence is utterly indefensible.

Never mind that I cannot vote here - there are still a few semantic bones to be picked in this bit of presidential glibness. The implication is very clear that the president IS indeed satisfied and not bitter because he is president. What other way is there to read this?

By extension, he implies that maybe having a cool job (like being president of the republic for example) staves off dissatisfaction and bitterness. In that case, who cares if we vote or not?

Another bit of gristle in the brisket: the president tells us to vote (and not to boycott upcoming elections) because in so doing we can speak our truth to their power. But what if we vote for someone else, Mr. President? This will certainly become a serious impediment to your satisfaction, while not necessarily decreasing the general bitterness. After all, only one of us gets to be president of the republic.

One can only assume that the president was attempting to demonstrate his deep empathy with the predicament of the Serbian people over which he has presided for the past several years and hopes to continue into the Putinesque future. But he did not express empathy, really. He said MAYBE he would be bitter. MAYBE he would be dissatisfied.

Thank you, O Leader, for very nearly feeling our pain.