Essay: Presentation at the International Scientific Meeting "Intellectuals, Yesterday and Today", SANU

07.December 2022 Vladeta Janković

Intellectuals and political practice

I do not share the oft-repeated radical point of view according to which every intellectual, being by some definitions the "embodiment of the spirit of resistance", should be against every regime. However, I would like to say that an intellectual, according to the definition that applies to me, simply has the obligation to be against the regime embodied by politicians like Milošević, Šešelj and today Aleksandar Vučić. In people of spirit there should be an almost organic need to oppose such regimes precisely because they are fundamentally unspiritual, anti-ethical and fundamentally anti-intellectual.