Living Through Extreme Circumstances
In my recent podcast discussion with Igor Blaževič, I asked him how he lived through a society that was falling apart all around him, in the case of having passed through the Bosnian War in the 1990s. In the following excerpt, his words highlight the importance of finding inner strength in the face of adversity. In times of crisis, everything that you believe in and hold dear is put in danger and you are faced with both the worst and best of humanity. While some people can choose to escape, or others can set forth on courageous courses of action, ultimately, it's the combination of small acts of goodness and heroism that can make a difference in the end. Igor firmly believes that those who face these challenges have an opportunity to respond in a meaningful way and take responsibility for countering the threat to humanity. It's a hard and emotional journey but at the end, it can lead to a deeply fulfilling life.
“The combination of people doing small good things and people doing heroic things is something that really can save the humanity.”
“What happened with me, and in a certain way, what happened with all of us, in Bosnia, in Sarajevo, is in a different but similar way, what is happening in a Myanmar now. Suddenly, everything you believe is your own life is stopped; you can't continue that! Everything you that believe is either your neighborhood or [your] city or region or country, whatever you identify yourself with, is suddenly in a kind of danger where you have a reasonable guess that it can disappear, that it can be totally destroyed. Which it cannot, luckily it cannot, but when you're sitting in the middle of that; you really think that this is the end of the days. Everything will disappear in total destruction.
So it's a terrifying experience.
Simply put, your whole life and everything around you, is falling apart; everything that you believe is humanity or values is disappearing. You are facing and looking at the worst that humans can produce. But at the same time, all around you, you see also the best what humans have in themselves. This extreme situation is really taking out from the human beings the worst they can do, but then from some others it is taking out the best of what human beings are capable of doing; in the sense of the courage and a sense of self-sacrifice, in the sense of the commitment to the others. And then you are making choices. Or you are very often not in a position to make choices.
But let's say one of the choices is that some people simply try to escape, which is a normal, human, or if you want, it's normal animal reaction. You flee; you flee, if you can. I have never blamed people who have done that decision, neither in Yugoslavia, neither in Bosnia, nor in other places. It's a legitimate choice not to not be a hero. But at the same time, thank God, that there are always people around ourselves, who are ready to be the heroes, and who are able to basically turn the bad histories in another direction.
The other possibility is then that you understand that you cannot move the mountain; you cannot stop the war; you cannot count on yourself or the people around you to stop the cataclysmic falling apart of everything… but you can do the small things. You can do the small actions, with discipline, with endurance, small things that go against that.
That was what I learned in Bosnia. It's a good thing to do, not to let despair and frustration swallow you, destroy you. Although you cannot remove them - every single night, every single day, the trauma is coming back - but somehow you leave it at that. You absorb that; you cry when you feel the pain, but at the same time you pick up yourself, you do your small act of goodness, your small act of contribution.
Let's say there are certain people who are also ready and able and capable to do the extraordinary heroic things, and we need them! The combination of these people doing small good things and people doing heroic things is something that really can save the humanity, if you want, save the country, save the cities.
That is what I believe in.
And I do think that people who face these things have an extraordinary opportunity in their lives to accept the challenge of responding in a right way to the threat to humanity. To take your own responsibility to counter that threat! That takes hard, work hard, a lot of hard emotions, a lot of pain. But that gives you really one of the most profoundly meaningful lives. And meaningful acts, what you can do to respond on a challenge of humanity being threatened, and counter that with all talent and with all energy you have.”