Opinion: Estonia enters the era of self-pity

Estonians have quickly discovered the feeling of self-pity, Tõnn Sarv writes in Eesti Ekspress.

“Estonia is going from one extreme to the other. It was good to be proud, as the lyrics of a famous song said. Estonia was about to discover its Nokia and reach five richest countries. And then everything changed. Now we are one of the least attractive countries that have been deserted a long time ago by any sensible person.

Well, yes, Both are issues of faith. I don’t know whether a Slovak should feel less proud for being a Slovak. Or what countries or nations are even less attractive than Estonia.

Every faith needs confirmation. Throughout the whole Soviet times it was believed that we were the most Western, most successful and the richest region in the red empire. We believed that it was our singing revolution that brought down the USSR. And that until now the biggest worry of the Russian president is how to handle Estonia.

It now seems that this thinking is changing and radically so.

People are now believe that we are a pitiful, meaningless, weak and stupid nation. Living in a cold and wretched weather. Everybody is angry and accusing each other. The government is impotent, the country is bankrupt. You can no longer count on anything. Those who can should flee.

Well, I don’t know. Self-pity is similar to self-pride, you can go too far with it. After all, the question is not whether everybody thinks the same way. Nor even what everybody things. Also media does not mean much.

This is likely to become a fashion trend and a popular cool attitude. The critical mass of opinion leaders will be filled and as soon as you say that you like living in Estonia you are pitiful. Because the right people are doing everything they can do leave.

But we have had these times of pity and pessimism also before. And not only we. Russia went through it in 1990s. We are getting to it now. With a bang.

We have depressive Estonian small towns. There was the time when Estonia was restoring monuments of freedom. Now no-one can understand why we need another one in the middle of Tallinn. It used to be good to be proud. Now it is pitiful and bad and everybody agrees to the ideas of Sami Lotila.

Source http://balticbusinessnews.com/default2.aspx

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