EODOPEN is the project uniting 15 libraries of Europe that aims at digitising and opening up 15 thousand documents and literary works from the 20th and 21st century. The goal of the project is to bring works to the public forefront by digitising and making them available on a pan-European level whilst fully respecting current copyright regimes.
Vilnius University Library, with the approval of the authors, has been digitising books written by the university scholars and published by Vilnius University Press. One of the authors who kindly gave his permission to digitise his book is Alvydas Jokubaitis, professor of the Institute of International Relations and Political Science.
With your consent, your book “Politika be vertybių“ (Politics Without Values) will be digitised and accessible to all. Do you support the idea of the project?
It is impossible to reject the presence of God when He touches you with His grace. The same thing could be said about this project. A generation has grown up with no knowledge of how to reach the library. For them, everything has to be in digits. Therefore, we have no other choice.
Are Lithuanians interested in politics? Economists will often blame us for our financial illiteracy – what about political literacy? Are we different from other European states?
Lithuanians are licking honey through the glass. They are "interested" in politics, but unable to clean their own staircase. What is the worth of this useless curiosity? Partisans or dissidents were not taught political literacy. Today university economists are interested in publications on economics but not in the economy itself. These are two different matters – economics for economists and the actual economy. We all live in the time of the “hypertrophy of theory", when useless theories come before wisdom.
Are political values changing in the world? Where are we headed?
The word "value" is the scary part here. In earlier times we would talk about virtues. Now we have "values of criminals", "values of prostitutes" and similar. We are heading towards a loss of moral clarity. Everything turned into an unceasing revaluation of values, from birth to death rates.
Is nationalism stronger than globalization?
A real fight between supporters of nationalism and globalization has not started yet. Their clash will become the central event of the world. Globalists have lost touch with the reality; they protect philosophical abstractions, whereas nationalists fight for real patterns of life and thought. Nationalism is also a global phenomenon and not exclusively bad one. There would be no Lithuania without it. It seems that globalists are stronger at present, but the reaction of the opposite side might be dramatic.
What are the main values defining the policy of the state? Is it its historical past, Europeanization or globalization?
Our state is gradually becoming a mechanism. Neither a refrigerator nor a car hold any values. The same could be said about our state. It became neutral, a bureaucratic organization, which doesn't need citizens. People feel this and they don’t even vote because of that. Words politicians say have lost touch with reality. People desperately need physicians' help and politicians offer them to smoke weed on the stairs of medical centres. As the state has no say in this, parties that are financially maintained by the state speak on the state's behalf.
Is the spirit of the nation still alive?
Let us wait for an extraordinary situation and only then our beautiful words will be put to test and we will see their true worth. At present, the nation is hiding, merely half of it showing up to vote in elections. Demagogues prattle on the nation's behalf. The spirit can be seen only when the nation is fighting for something. Presently, the spirit of Lithuania is on holiday.
Is there any chance for the national state to survive?
Only if it fights for itself as the state of Israel does it. The Jews are not waiting for chance of fate. They are creating their fate themselves. Compared to them, Lithuanians look like children of a small village who decided to play politics.
What is the impact of the personal values of a politician on his or her political activities?
Politics will always be driven by personalities and ideas. It is impossible to feign political authority. Either you have it, or you don’t. Lithuania had only two really great politicians – Vytautas (Grand Duke of Lithuania of the 14th century) and Bishop Motiejus Valančius. Others only thought or think that they are great. Pathetic, this pride of theirs.
Click on this link to access Alvydas Jokubaitis’ book "Politika be vertybių". More books that have been digitised within the EODOPEN project can be accessed through the Digital Collections website of Vilnius University Library.
Nijolė Bulotaitė
2021-01-18