As Serbian scholars and experts of all sorts exert themselves to explain how it turns out that Serbs are the oldest nation in the Balkans and how every other neighboring nation is not really a nation but a self proclaimed group derived from Serbs, we, the citizens of Serbia, have rapidly been enduring additional wrinkles and gray hairs. I mean this literally - not only are we lagging behind our modern counterparts with our mentality and habits, but we are an aging population. With a negative population growth rate (estimated at -3.5% in 2004), low birthrates and high brain drain, Serbia is becoming rusty in every sense - mentally, financially and demographically. Many people are afraid to have children - afraid that they will not be able to support them financially, that the state will not provide them with basic rights to education, health care, peace and safety and that their children will become like those of my generation. Those who do have children, aspire for them to live abroad. Those oblivious to Serbia's problems, also have children, and spend their time talking about some trivial topic, such as which nation really settled the Balkans first. I would by no means want to discourage any theorizing, however I do think that - in our case - this specific argument is detrimental. Yes, we are old, but we are old in so many ways much more relevant to our lives than the origin dates of our nation. We are an aging population demographically and an aging group of individuals mentally. Our streets are aged, our schools and hospitals obsolete. Why would we want to be old in any additional way?
Why would we want to tag along yet another theory that will turn our heads from the future?
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