TE23 Double Feature

The President Shop

Vesna Mari ć

“Exactly,” said Ruben. “That’s exactly right. Who can think that is not right? You don’t even have to be a Marxist to find that is the way things are.” Diogen said nothing. Rosa nodded as she wiped the dust off the President’s many busts, cast in copper, silver, bronze and kept in various glass cases in the shop. But there was a single one in gold, locked up in a shatterproof glass cabinet. This wasthe pride and joy of the President Shop.

sometimes he made jokes that made Ruben and Rosa laugh. But mostly he was serious. “What are the phenomena of nationalism? Here are some of them. One. National egoism, from which many other neg-ative traits of nationalism are derived, as for example—a desire for foreign conquest, a desire to oppress other nations, a desire to impose economic exploitation upon other nations, and so on.” “Two. National chauvinism, which is also a source of many other negative traits of nationalism, as for example national hatred, the disparagement of other nations, the disparagement of their history, culture, and scientific activities and scientific achievements, and so on, the glorification of developments in their own history that were negative and which from our Marx-ist point of view is considered negative.” “Yes!” Ruben would shout. “That’s right!”

Chapter 3

The locked up shatterproof, fireproof glass cabinet was pur-chased abroad and manufactured to protect expensive artwork. The state had offered Ruben half of the money to acquire it and protect the bust; the bust, apart from being 289

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