The Paramacedonian Identity

[Vasiliye]

I propose the introduction of a new scholarly term for a sort of
idiosyncratic ideology that exist in rudimentary, yet elegant and
vibrant form: Paramacedonism.

What is exactly Paramacedonism?It is a belief system espoused by
hypothetically any member of any ethnicity that there is something
uniquely “Macedonian” about oneself, not in a regional sense, but in
an ethnic one, which relatively harmoniously coexists with the core
ethnicity. The Paramacedonian individual is therefore both member of
one fixed and immutable identity of unmistakably ethnic type and a
fluid, adaptive identity which is also ethnic i.e. which unifies a
concept of cultural peculiarities and a concept of ethnic ecumene with
exclusivity regarding one's eventual affiliation.

The conclusion that only people with core Bulgarian ethnic identity
practice Paramacedonism is a result of careful observation of recent
and historical developments of interactions in the broader
Geographical Macedonia.

The core identity has no function in itself. It has emergent properties
when it is challenged in a certain situation. Thus it is more
transcendent and eternal, reminiscent of the concept of blood and
soil. In a mind of conservative relics of 1923-1949 population
transfers and expulsions, it is a Demochristian zeitgeist combined and
practiced with grandiloquent rhetorics evocative of VMRO era, with a
set of mystical symbols that challenge the structure of pragmatism
born out by harshness of the preceding realities.

The Macedonian identity espoused and cherished by Bulgarian
nationalists is first and foremost exclusive, and therefore not simply
a neutral and regionalist, designating individuals with roots in
Geographic Macedonia, but instead supreme and to a certain level
equivalent to the core identity and yet somewhat elevated over the
more all embracing structure of the former: “da si makedonec e da si od nai-čistite balgari”

Together with horizontal exclusivity, which is per se sufficient for
its designation as ethnic or rather “paraethnic”, another dimension to
Paramacedonism in the specific Bulgarian case is given by the vertical
rearrangement of the cherished Macedonism's ability to serve as a
focal point of the proverbial Bulgarian inclination toward dogmatic
centralist etatism.The historical dynamic of this tendency stands
influenced to a large degree by the status of the horizontally defined
Paramacedonian entity in space,Thus before 1913 it was a vague idea of
“Автономна Македония”.Later it immediately became the banner of
struggle “sreštu grci i srbi”.On that particular stage of history, on
scene defined by the myriad of novelties and complex factor that we
call the “Macedonian Question” one can see the escalation of the level
of exclusiveness of the Macedonian identity practiced by local
Bulgarian nationalists. It ceased to be a mere symbol and identity of
pride, but instead it became the single most politically correct
expression of the Bulgarian nationalistic aspirations. The employment
of the root “Macedon-” in a gallery of expressions, both spoken and
written by all accounts had a very specific and narrow function and a
single collateral consequence. First, to the generic audience of the
West, it presented certain autochotonism and emulation of sense of
deprivation to the Slavic-speaking population of Geographic Macedonia,
because the very term “Macedonian” parsed through the early Xxth
century journalism indicated greater injustice than it would be the
case if that population was presented as Bulgarian.

Bulgarians had a spare homeland, Macedonians have only
Macedonia.Bulgarians of Macedonia would be “Macedonian” in a neutral
fashion, together with the Greeks, Turks, Albanians, Aromanians,
Serbs, Roma etc.But as exclusive Macedonians they leave impression of
people subjugated in their own land.This was undoubtely a very fine
tactical trick which provided the semantic backbone of many
articulations of Paramacedonism of VMROtype, mystical and sancrosant
to its ideologues,but at the same time undoubtely perfidious.One
consequence of this Paramacedonism was reinforcing of exclusivity of
Macedonian identity vis a vis the rest of the Bulgarians people which
meant a divergence from a previous convergence in the 19th century on
all levels of national ethos.

The Paramacedonism proved itself fatal for the core Bulgarian
identity, replacing it after 1944 with a form of surrogate identity with strong
macedonian exclusiveness with regard to the space of Geographic
Macedonia and a identity based on the snapshot of regional
characteristic, some of them mild in form, some of them stronger in
their social engineering value, and few imported from outside.

It remains to be seen how much the quality of being Bulgarian was
damaged and how much the strategy of Bulgarian irredentism gained from
Paramacedonism.Yet one is obliged to mention one term coined by
Bulgarians from Geographic Macedonia themselves which truly captures
the quintessence of Paramacedonism, namely the term “makedonobalgarin“, which is in the last decades cherished by MPO, an
organization which cultivates exclusive Macedonian identity, with
occasional, almost sublime remainder that, after all, their core
identity under the skin of Macedonism is the Bulgarian one.

[terastios]

[akritas]

Vasiliye post your article in

http://www.macedoniaontheweb.com/for...onia-articles/

[Vasiliye]

I will, Akritas, after I elaborate it a little bit, this is only an encyclopedic outline, a mere definition.Thank you.