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– Was the writer Marius Ivaškevičius the only one who saw your name on this list and called you suicide?
– First of all, I’m not partisan. I do not belong to any party. Well, in public I may be the only one, but I have no doubt that there was a raised eyebrow or a finger twist to incense. But I’m not at all angry: if you’re trying to get into politics, it’s natural to expect different evaluations. I am grateful to those who properly valued my behavior as an option.
– Apparently, whoever called it suicide knows what it’s worth today and what it’s not …
– Well, of course, the choice is not pragmatic, not because you are caught or seen somewhere; the most important thing for me was to support the people and ideas that I believe in. After all, there is no point in working, creating, and representing things that you don’t believe in. Of course, there is nonsense in youth, but it seems to me that an adult who does what he does not believe or who is guided only by pragmatism cannot yet be considered mature. Of course, there are other factors, various business interests, the convenience of life is still very important to many, not everyone could accept that it will be unknown, that it will be ridiculed, that it will not earn well enough and so on. Finally, reminding Bulgakov of what Voland talks about in The Master and Margarita in the Patriarch’s Ponds with Berlioz and Bezdomn: “the choice is small, you are part of the plan and you only have to decide if you are part of one plan or another”. I did not think about commercial interests, losses or ups and downs, I just feel that I am on the way forward. I am part of that plan.
– At the beginning of independence, the people of art were expelled from politics, compromising some, others departing from the methods of political activity. Perhaps that is why even today artists remain cautious with politics, they keep their distance …
– What does this mean? Perhaps they are afraid to spread their views? Are you afraid to fight for your ideas? Perhaps someone will say, look, the brave man has appeared. But finally, let’s dare to say that artists are sometimes cowards. I’m sick of the type of artist for whom politics is a dirty thing. He says that he will not anoint his hands as if he were himself a clean angel, not subject to intrigue, jealousy, and temptations to compromise. It is reminiscent of the pre-war period, such as the pre-occupation Smetona times, when our bodybuilders and politicians openly enjoyed and actively participated in the Moscow-funded society to learn about the culture of the USSR. Similar processes are taking place today, artists are happy that there is cultural diplomacy towards China and some educational activities, but I think there are some dangers here too. It was going, before the war there was such a society and the artists were very happy that culture and its artists were respected in the Soviet Union; how it ended, we know. An artist needs to have civic courage, he needs to be a patriot of his country. This word can be difficult to pronounce today, because the meaning of words like “nation”, “patriot”, “virtue”, “value” is distorted, ridiculed, despised as the Lithuanian language, as well as Lithuanian literature. It does not matter because it is small, and we are globalists, people of the world, well, we are cosmopolitans, not patriotic idiots, etc. I was very impressed by Pablo Picasso’s idea that the artist is a political being. defend against the enemy. Great words, I would definitely sign below them. It is not possible for an artist to be apolitical, or at least lukewarm and floating downstream, or, I will say ugly, to that leaf that clings to one but the other. And if you really fight and defend yourself against the enemy with your creations, you must be a citizen of your state, you must feel pain for what is happening in your state. After all, politics is the same area of life as any other. And if we do not delve into it, we do not analyze it, we do not look with sobriety and patience, without anger, the prejudices that are very present, we artists lose a lot.
– Not only artists, but apparently also readers, listeners, spectators, for whom does art help to adapt to the world and for whom the word of the artists is quite important?
– I’m skeptical of this theory, – the artist is the same taxpayer and the same citizen as anyone else in the state. An artist is not a sacrament. I realize that this perception comes from ancient times, but this ideological cliché is completely foreign to me. I don’t think an artist is anything more special, because next time some ordinary person is much more honest and healthy in mind than an artist from Tula. The artist is, of course, extraordinary in something, but he is not superior to others.
– I don’t say “superior”, but the developer at least has immunity to herd sentiment.
– Everyone is special because he is a creator. Not only the artist is like that. And the guard can be a creator, only perhaps the expression of his work is completely different. And the most beautiful characteristic of any race, gender, person of faith is creativity, the meaning of which today, unfortunately, is also distorted, I would say, the ability to create, not to imitate, not to follow, not to adapt, but to create something unique and beautiful. And because of the sentiment of the pack … hm … does the artist really have immunity to him? I doubt …
– Don’t you see that a large part of the Nation has already been brainwashed?
– Sometimes you don’t even have to brainwash those brains – a couple of conspiracy theories are enough and the community of their distributors immediately expands, because some people have enough attitudes against them. Of course, critical thinking is a human problem, but critical thinking must develop on its own. We are not the only ones in this regard, there are not many critics in the world.
– Your new book “Through the Rusting Night” talks about the most difficult period in Lithuania, not only in terms of human choice, but also in terms of survival, as if confirming that great personalities are born in critical circumstances …
– Here is the existentialist idea that only in the brutal conditions of war, famine, plague, turmoil, when it is necessary to choose “or”, “not only is humanity exposed, but also human maturity is revealed , greatness or human inferiority. And when life is relatively calm, like today, look at how the young man screams like crazy, not being able to enter the bars for the right to drink in quarantine, etc. I do not condemn them, perhaps I would have behaved like this when I was young. In fact, it is only in difficult conditions that the true nature of man is revealed, and his ideas, and the power of his choice, in fact there is never a surplus of very strong personalities, but they are so Extraordinary like the hero of my novel, partisan Antanas Kraujelis-Siaubūnas, they are inspiring personalities who exemplify how to live to be truly human, not garbage floating down the river.
– Can I be so disappointed with the election results compared to the episode of the writing experience? Perhaps with a dead book, an unexpectedly unfavorable review? ..
– Of course there are disappointments. Frustration, as they say, was always lurking around the corner. Accompany each book either because you wanted to say something else but did not say it, or because if it is bought, the critic does not realize it, and if the critic notices it, the reader does not buy it … Life is like a pendulum : one-way – frustration, on the other hand, joy. Then it glows, unable to stay in the wave all the time or be alone on the bottom all the time. Everything in life needs balance; so is.
– Don’t you feel bitter about the failed election?
– Sometimes people put in a lot of work, sincerity, but they lack the basics: advertising, communication, money, which is within reach of the big parties. On the other hand, I wouldn’t consider it a loss: 2.14 percent. Voter votes: is it low? This is no small feat for such a young force. Defeats, on the other hand, are the stage after which you raise your head and return to battle. I have no hope that if there are meaningful ideas and sincere people upholding them, their ideals can’t go unnoticed, but something will come out of them.
– If it is true that we elect the government as we are worthy, which is our reflection, then what face of Lithuania would we see in the mirror of the elected Seimas?
– Probably objective enough, considering that half of Lithuania did not vote at all. That inert mass is very interesting to me. I wonder what can move these people, what can get them off television and into the polls. I understand them in a way, because they are suffering from great frustration and, I think, reasonable disappointment. As much as we talk about a person being a blacksmith of his own happiness, that he has to show initiative, work, not give up (this is also true), but the government also has to help a person, if not help, by less not prevent him from going that way. And now, for example, I sometimes see that the authorities, who should help more and if not physically, institutionally, at least morally, become not only an obstacle for a person to achieve their goals, but also increase distrust or frustration in our state. There seems to be little that seems: that you shouldn’t be strangled by taxes, that you shouldn’t be told how to live, that you should finally feel like you own your state, like those Americans who sing the anthem with their palms pressed to their chest. Maybe funny for someone, you know, no. I would very much like Lithuania to have a more humane attitude from the institutions towards small and medium-sized enterprises, as well as towards other citizens. I don’t mean the unemployed or the malicious unemployed who don’t pay to work because the benefits are enough, that side isn’t much better either. We really don’t have to follow the example of some quasi-socialist European countries, famous as much for their large army of civil servants and subsidies as for their bloated project culture. We need to walk the path that strengthens us. Support people who do not want to live on profits, people who want to work and create.
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