TRANSITION AS A TRANSFER OF CULTURE FROM POLIS TO MEGALOPOLIS

Text topic: Culture in Transition

Text author: Слободан Владушић

In this text the difference between two cultural matrixes is being examined: the culture of Polis and the culture of Megalopolis. Taking for example Dučić and his glorification of social life in big cities, dating from 1902, the roots of the culture of polis in Serbian culture are being shown. It stands against the dominant romantic matrix but not in a way that denies national identity deriving from that matrix, but in a way that recognizes a set of civil and modern values within the national culture and identity. As opposed to this, the culture of Megalopolis turns a citizen into a consumer, characterized by feeling of radical emptiness. By using brands, it turns him or her into a virtual citizen of Megalopolis who has negative sentiments towards its own cultural tradition because he/she experiences it as something that prevents his/her connection with the Megalopolis. Thus this cultural matrix acts as an instrument of separation of an individual and his or her cultural tradition, by which he or she is turned into a virtual resident of Megalopolis. Therefore it supports the turnover of a national state into suburbia which is entirely at the disposal of Megalopolis.