8 ms·

I am a Bulgarian, born in 1986 and immigrated to Austria in 1997. But it pains and scares me that an exiled Bulgarian now wants to take on the Bulgarian collect

I am a Bulgarian, born in 1986 and immigrated to Austria in 1997. But it pains and scares me that an exiled Bulgarian now wants to take on the Bulgarian collective with postmodern, cosmopolitan and American ideas. The cycles he describes exist mostly in the minds of postmodern cosmopolitans. And these arise because cosmopolitans in reality cannot produce anything other than ideology and services. Yet the terrible and boring every day bread still comes from the bakery! And since you can't invent a new ideology or service or produce a new work of art every day (except for journalists of course, who mastered the producing of "nothingness" every single day), at some point you get lost in pondering and start looking for the culprit. Of course, the first scapegoat is politics, society, people - always the others. Just because you can't free yourself from your nihilistic mental wheel, you have to conjure up and condemn the entire collective. Herein lies the birth of all 'structural arguments', I claim, ad hoc. 'My dissatisfaction must have structural reasons, otherwise I wouldn't be dissatisfied.' The eternal lamentation of the upper-urban-class cosmopolitans. No, I know and admire people for whom such complaints are distant, even annoying. People who don't have time for it. And you can just as freely and willingly decide to lead a calm and regulated life. This life is not a danger to humanity, as the postmodernists and cosmopolitans have always wanted to tell us, and I do not want Bulgaria to be 'Americanized' that way. I would rather listen to a Kaba Gaida in the mountains than have to read through a capitalist-cosmopolitan lament. The former gives me power and strength, a connection to the world, the latter just makes me sick and weak. I know Bulgaria has its issues, but losing its uniqueness to solve them, is for me the bigger issue.

kubanczyk 3y ago
How do you define a "postmodern cosmopolitan"? You must have a very specific definition in mind, but without it your comment seems to lack substance. For example, how do I know if I'm postmodern or not?
- bgrn89 3y ago
  The poster is complaining about the city dwelling intelligentsia being out of touch with the everyday values and ambitions of the 'common' man. This is due to liberal Western ideals apparently. To get the same effect for a US context, you could replace 'postmodern cosmopolitan' with 'urban coastal elite'.
  - Vektorceraptor 3y ago
    No, not only the "ambitions of the common man", but of man or life itself, no matter if common or exceptional (if there is such a difference at all here). I'm living in Austria, and I feel that I have to leave this country. I want to move back to Bulgaria or somewhere else, where life is wild, natural and rough. The west has become tame and sick, and I got exhausted of it. I don't fit in this society anymore, and I can't be productive under its conditions. But you can't even say that out loud anymore, because that means "questioning the whole western ideology" and suddenly someone feels threatened, and myself becomes a criminal. I'm tired of a society where the fears of person A makes' person B a criminal, and of people lacking any decisiveness or spontaneity - and being afraid of spontaneous and decisive people. If wester culture is anything, then it is "fake". Probably the reason, why the author, "the rootless cosmopolitan" moved back to Bulgaria, and found again a sense of feeling home. I claim that the West has forgotten what "home" means. Western culture has become empty and fake - and I'm tired to explain the most obvious thing to so many people - and in the end, they don't believe you anyway. They really believe, they are part of something bigger, are very important and are going to be famous or something. Intellectual vanity and luxury and bragging. And someone knows, very well, how to define himself and where he stands. The question is not how to objectively categorize or define you, but rather how and what you have to say about yourself. edit: in Bulgaria, there is a common truth: life in Bulgaria is shit. But it is impossible to agree on the same truth in western societies, because that's the strong myth they rely on - that they are better, than the rest of the world. Do you get what I mean? Anyone who is dissatisfied with the west must be out of their minds. There are things that have now become impossible in the West. Simply expressing unsatisfaction has become a danger for the status quo or the state.
    - iGo_by_Ganio 3y ago
      [dead]
    - hydrok9 3y ago
      I find your views very interesting and that they resonate with me. are you in fact planning to move back to Bulgaria?
- iGo_by_Ganio 3y ago
  [dead]
iGo_by_Ganio 3y ago
[flagged]
- dang 3y ago
  Hey, can you please not post like this to HN? We have to ban accounts that do. Don't get me wrong—I understand and personally enjoy this sort of barbed satire, but we can't allow it on HN because it evokes a cascade of garden-variety internet slop, most of which is flammable. This is the inescapable fate of a large+open internet forum, so we need you to make your substantive points in a different way here. If you wouldn't mind reviewing https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and taking the intended spirit of the site more to heart, we'd be grateful.
handwarmers 3y ago
The whole piece reads like superficiality dressed in sophistry to a maddening degree. Like a messy soup of wishful thinking inspired by the style of Georgi Gospodinov
AntiRemote 3y ago
[dead]
javaunsafe2019 3y ago
For me it seems like you interpret a lot into the text as an opposition from you own believes. It’s seems somewhat unreasonable how you claim for true values of an real working class life while typing text into a keyboard that for certain some of those cosmopolitan has invented back in the days. You live in a too simplified model for whatever reasons imo
- Vektorceraptor 3y ago
  The claim that it is only cosmopolitans or progressives who advance progress and the course of the world, which is made without any evidence and is only an expression of your own bias and preference, cannot be made in this way. You neither really know who worked on it under what conditions and with what personality, nor do you have the right to attribute to them values that you personally like. It is precisely these unjustified attacks that in reality do not advance the world, but rather destroy it from within, because they pretend to have something, namely objective validity, but in reality they are just very personal evaluations and ideas that are imposed on others in a way that can clearly be described as arrogant and insulting. Anyone who loses people's favor in this way need not be surprised if they turn their backs on them.
  - javaunsafe2019 3y ago
    Where did I claim that only ? I just have some elderly innovators in my personal life who invented important laser technologies which are not crucial in every day life and they are exactly those cosmopolitans you were talking about. I just wanted to give you another perspective
    - Vektorceraptor 3y ago
      Then of course I can understand you very well. In such an environment, happiness and optimism thrive much more easily. I think you're lucky to be surrounded by people like that. As Tolstoy said: 'All happy families are alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way'
afandian 3y ago
I don’t want to trivialise your post, but I encourage everyone to look up videos of the Kaba Gaida. It’s one of my favourite bagpipes. This organised performance probably goes against the sprit of your post but it’s really beautiful. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mQY-ae7beBQ https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mQY-ae7beBQ
- Vektorceraptor 3y ago
  I like it too. I like that the Bulgarians play very strange bars: 15/17 or something similar :) I like this playfulness with the soul
- foobarian 3y ago
  Speaking of gajde, one of my favorite ever music recordings is this rendition of Delio Haidutin on Music Idol Bulgaria of all places [1]. That song is also what was sent up on the golden CD on the Voyager. But I like this version better :-) [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuaE8i-aFJU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuaE8i-aFJU
Shorel 3y ago
I am a foreigner currently living in Bulgaria. I don't see what are these postmodern, cosmopolitan and American ideas. Can you explain yourself better? What I read was something different: The eternal search for a meaningful existence. It applies to everyone, in every continent of the globe, through their entire lives. So if for example: I am working for an IT company, and my work deals only with improving ad technology, at some point I will feel that meaningless apprehension, because ad technology is ultimately worthless for humanity in general. (This is only an example, I don't work with ads) Working for example in bioinformatics o biotechnology, helping people heal, would be much better. It would be meaningful. (Another example, I don't work with biotechnology) Both technologies, both paths, are available in western countries and in other countries. It is our personal choice, and no one is forcing us to choose one over the other. It's all a series of personal decisions, aggregated in the millions, what makes nations what they are.
- bluetomcat 3y ago
  It's a US-centric view written by a Bulgarian who is already engulfed in that culture. Bulgarian society is driven by a different set of cultural values and you cannot understand it through the lens of these grand-explanatory mechanisms offered by US think-tanks. Even during communism, ideology in Bulgaria was something few people cared about or believed in. It was about empty slogans in schools and public places, empty-speech by public officials and nothing much more. Private life was a different affair. It was always centered around the family and providing safety for the kids. It is a deeply-embedded instinct for self-preservation since Ottoman times. New forms of social organisation emerged under the official iron fist of the ruling party. People were doing mutual favours within a close relationship. Even now, this is the primary form of organisation in Bulgarian society. Knowing the right people, nurturing close relationships with them, calling them for favours in difficult times, expecting to be called by them at any time.
  - adriancr 3y ago
    -
    - 3y ago
_8j50 3y ago
I love the way you composed your opinion. But why are the two things mutually exclusive? America is not manhattan either, I'd reckon non-cosmopolitan america is larger than all of europe. In the end, shouldn't the quality of life for the people who live there be a priority?

kubanczyk 3y ago

How do you define a "postmodern cosmopolitan"? You must have a very specific definition in mind, but without it your comment seems to lack substance. For example, how do I know if I'm postmodern or not?

bgrn89 3y ago
The poster is complaining about the city dwelling intelligentsia being out of touch with the everyday values and ambitions of the 'common' man. This is due to liberal Western ideals apparently. To get the same effect for a US context, you could replace 'postmodern cosmopolitan' with 'urban coastal elite'.
- Vektorceraptor 3y ago
  No, not only the "ambitions of the common man", but of man or life itself, no matter if common or exceptional (if there is such a difference at all here). I'm living in Austria, and I feel that I have to leave this country. I want to move back to Bulgaria or somewhere else, where life is wild, natural and rough. The west has become tame and sick, and I got exhausted of it. I don't fit in this society anymore, and I can't be productive under its conditions. But you can't even say that out loud anymore, because that means "questioning the whole western ideology" and suddenly someone feels threatened, and myself becomes a criminal. I'm tired of a society where the fears of person A makes' person B a criminal, and of people lacking any decisiveness or spontaneity - and being afraid of spontaneous and decisive people. If wester culture is anything, then it is "fake". Probably the reason, why the author, "the rootless cosmopolitan" moved back to Bulgaria, and found again a sense of feeling home. I claim that the West has forgotten what "home" means. Western culture has become empty and fake - and I'm tired to explain the most obvious thing to so many people - and in the end, they don't believe you anyway. They really believe, they are part of something bigger, are very important and are going to be famous or something. Intellectual vanity and luxury and bragging. And someone knows, very well, how to define himself and where he stands. The question is not how to objectively categorize or define you, but rather how and what you have to say about yourself. edit: in Bulgaria, there is a common truth: life in Bulgaria is shit. But it is impossible to agree on the same truth in western societies, because that's the strong myth they rely on - that they are better, than the rest of the world. Do you get what I mean? Anyone who is dissatisfied with the west must be out of their minds. There are things that have now become impossible in the West. Simply expressing unsatisfaction has become a danger for the status quo or the state.
  - iGo_by_Ganio 3y ago
    [dead]
  - hydrok9 3y ago
    I find your views very interesting and that they resonate with me. are you in fact planning to move back to Bulgaria?
iGo_by_Ganio 3y ago
[dead]

iGo_by_Ganio 3y ago

[flagged]

dang 3y ago
Hey, can you please not post like this to HN? We have to ban accounts that do. Don't get me wrong—I understand and personally enjoy this sort of barbed satire, but we can't allow it on HN because it evokes a cascade of garden-variety internet slop, most of which is flammable. This is the inescapable fate of a large+open internet forum, so we need you to make your substantive points in a different way here. If you wouldn't mind reviewing https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and taking the intended spirit of the site more to heart, we'd be grateful.

handwarmers 3y ago

The whole piece reads like superficiality dressed in sophistry to a maddening degree. Like a messy soup of wishful thinking inspired by the style of Georgi Gospodinov

AntiRemote 3y ago

[dead]

javaunsafe2019 3y ago

For me it seems like you interpret a lot into the text as an opposition from you own believes. It’s seems somewhat unreasonable how you claim for true values of an real working class life while typing text into a keyboard that for certain some of those cosmopolitan has invented back in the days. You live in a too simplified model for whatever reasons imo

Vektorceraptor 3y ago
The claim that it is only cosmopolitans or progressives who advance progress and the course of the world, which is made without any evidence and is only an expression of your own bias and preference, cannot be made in this way. You neither really know who worked on it under what conditions and with what personality, nor do you have the right to attribute to them values that you personally like. It is precisely these unjustified attacks that in reality do not advance the world, but rather destroy it from within, because they pretend to have something, namely objective validity, but in reality they are just very personal evaluations and ideas that are imposed on others in a way that can clearly be described as arrogant and insulting. Anyone who loses people's favor in this way need not be surprised if they turn their backs on them.
- javaunsafe2019 3y ago
  Where did I claim that only ? I just have some elderly innovators in my personal life who invented important laser technologies which are not crucial in every day life and they are exactly those cosmopolitans you were talking about. I just wanted to give you another perspective
  - Vektorceraptor 3y ago
    Then of course I can understand you very well. In such an environment, happiness and optimism thrive much more easily. I think you're lucky to be surrounded by people like that. As Tolstoy said: 'All happy families are alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way'

afandian 3y ago

I don’t want to trivialise your post, but I encourage everyone to look up videos of the Kaba Gaida. It’s one of my favourite bagpipes. This organised performance probably goes against the sprit of your post but it’s really beautiful. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mQY-ae7beBQ https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mQY-ae7beBQ

Vektorceraptor 3y ago
I like it too. I like that the Bulgarians play very strange bars: 15/17 or something similar :) I like this playfulness with the soul
foobarian 3y ago
Speaking of gajde, one of my favorite ever music recordings is this rendition of Delio Haidutin on Music Idol Bulgaria of all places [1]. That song is also what was sent up on the golden CD on the Voyager. But I like this version better :-) [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuaE8i-aFJU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuaE8i-aFJU

Shorel 3y ago

I am a foreigner currently living in Bulgaria. I don't see what are these postmodern, cosmopolitan and American ideas. Can you explain yourself better? What I read was something different: The eternal search for a meaningful existence. It applies to everyone, in every continent of the globe, through their entire lives. So if for example: I am working for an IT company, and my work deals only with improving ad technology, at some point I will feel that meaningless apprehension, because ad technology is ultimately worthless for humanity in general. (This is only an example, I don't work with ads) Working for example in bioinformatics o biotechnology, helping people heal, would be much better. It would be meaningful. (Another example, I don't work with biotechnology) Both technologies, both paths, are available in western countries and in other countries. It is our personal choice, and no one is forcing us to choose one over the other. It's all a series of personal decisions, aggregated in the millions, what makes nations what they are.

bluetomcat 3y ago
It's a US-centric view written by a Bulgarian who is already engulfed in that culture. Bulgarian society is driven by a different set of cultural values and you cannot understand it through the lens of these grand-explanatory mechanisms offered by US think-tanks. Even during communism, ideology in Bulgaria was something few people cared about or believed in. It was about empty slogans in schools and public places, empty-speech by public officials and nothing much more. Private life was a different affair. It was always centered around the family and providing safety for the kids. It is a deeply-embedded instinct for self-preservation since Ottoman times. New forms of social organisation emerged under the official iron fist of the ruling party. People were doing mutual favours within a close relationship. Even now, this is the primary form of organisation in Bulgarian society. Knowing the right people, nurturing close relationships with them, calling them for favours in difficult times, expecting to be called by them at any time.
- adriancr 3y ago
  -
  - 3y ago

_8j50 3y ago

I love the way you composed your opinion. But why are the two things mutually exclusive? America is not manhattan either, I'd reckon non-cosmopolitan america is larger than all of europe. In the end, shouldn't the quality of life for the people who live there be a priority?