834707483

roots in a kind of primitive and infantile mentality, it is very stubborn so that the beginnings of culture coincide (appearance of morality, religion, philosophy, humanism,) with the fight against ethno-centrism. We can fłnd it already among cannibal tribes but this does not mean that highly developed nations cannot descend to that Ievel. Therefore, the struggle against ethno-centrism is a permanent mission of human culture, a continuous effort to raise man from a sub-human to a human level.

What are the obvious characteristics of ethno-centrism? For in-stance, a nationalist cannot comprehend that he can simultaneously be loyal to a narrower social creation and towards a wider one as well, that one can be a good Croat or Serb and at the same time a good Yugoslav or good European or good citizen of the world.⁸ Ethno-centrism creates all kinds of social prejudices which form all types of boundaries and obstacles for relations with other groups and nations. There are differing degrees of negative behavior towards other social groups, nations and national minorities that vary in intensity from mild to brutal: 1. gossip (a man burdened with prejudices can find special satisfaction if he can say something negative about the other nation; with the almost pleasure he spreads all sorts of rumors which destroy the prestige of the other nation and strengthened the antagonisms felt against it, this is not expressed solely in public but ąlso in »entrance tickets to high society«: some time ago one could often hear lamę jokes about the intelligentsia to show that »we are among ourselves«, and now we hear such remarks directed against our »brotherly nations«); 2. avoidance (the individual avoids members of the national group he dislikes, breaks off normal human relationships and wants to have dealings with them only from a position of strength); 3. discriminałion (efforts madę to establish a certain way of treating various social groups - communists, national minorities, other nationalities, Jews, etc., - it first starts by not greeting the represent-atives of these enemy groups, then you make social activities impos-sible for them, subsequently they are branded and deprived of their civil rights) ;^s 4. physical assault (when the emotional and irrational

395