Knowledge and Entertainment

I think knowledge versus entertainment is the dialectic I’ve been thinking about recently. At the oceanside restaurant there was seating at shared tables. A Philippino-American woman compared notes with a couple from Singapore who enjoyed Mostar. „What is there to do in Mostar?“ „There’s the bridge.“ A very nice couple from Florida sat across from me and told me of their hopes for change based on the number of women running for office in Florida and the seeming realization of Republicans that algae blooms and massive fish kills are bad for the tourist industry. What is there to do? Numerous tourists of various lands have t-shirts with slogans on them in English, often intended to be witty. A middle-aged woman’s: „What do women want?“ with a picture of shoes. A Croatian souvenir saleswoman’s „Make your dreams happen.“ What are her dreams? The guide I talked with yesterday said guides typically earn about 400 € a month, less than he’d make serving in a restaurant. The average national income is about 700 €. I didn’t ask her because I didn’t want her to think I was hitting on her. In all the t-shirts there has been nothing remotely political. I saw a young teenager whose shirt read „fuck.“ but not one with an anarchy ‚A‘ or a peace sign or something else which might be theoretically political while culturally acceptable. This whole milieu is engaged in consuming, entertaining. No one seems remotely interested in Croatian politics, what happened to Yugoslavia, how Yugoslavia came to be. I’m honestly not sure how interested anyone is in knowledge of any sort. I don’t say that in a judgmental way, but observational. I hear people say „I went to ….“ „I [performed some action]“. In listening to conversations I don’t hear people say „I learned …„