Philosophy,hidden in slogans: The case of relaxedness of Slovenian educational system

Abstract

Slogans in education are designed to promote educational goals. One of the finest remarkable examples in Slovenian history demonstrates that political slogans can sometimes cover a whole range of social areas and operate as a central ideologeme, through which a very specific political and educational ambition was promoted in an otherwise inarticulate way. The concept of relaxedness (in Slovenian sproščenost), taken from the philosophy of Martin Heidegger and his notion of Die Gelassenheit (releasement), after the victory of the right-wing SDS (Slovenian Democratic Party) party in 2004 is perhaps one of the best illustrations in Slovenian politics of how an ideology, in this case a philosophically inspired one, operated already through the slogan and, above all, through its semantically ambiguous and undefined content. The sproščenost of the Slovenian school, as it was named, became a motto for political change within the educational system as well, where the very essence of it manifested through complete vagueness or, in other words, openness to meaning. In line with the uncommon slogan ‘Za sproščeno Slovenijo’ (‘For a relaxed Slovenia’) the SDS, as the leading opposition party in Slovenian history, not only won the elections for the first time, but also tried to completely transform the social and political space in the country. The Slovenian example shows how a unique political slogan can occupy the whole social field, including education, with its effects, thus creating a specific political and at the same time educational moment in its social action.

Historical and political circumstances of creation of ‘sproščenost’

Relaxedness (sproščenost) became motto of the day in Slovenia in 2004. To better understand the use of this slogan we need to recall some of the historical circumstances at the time. In October, during the parliamentary elections, which coincided in time and were in sync with the historical turn to the political right, sproščenost as a unique ideological and election slogan paved the way for the first ever victory of the right-wing party SDS (Slovenian Democratic Party). A single term in a still young independent country began to act as an overwhelming ideologeme, taking on the function of a political program, which also included the demand for structural changes in the national education system, although never articulated in substance. This is perhaps one of the most intriguing and typical examples in Slovenian politics in general of how slogans can function as an ideological construct.

Slovenia declared its independence from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia on 25 June 1991. The process of independence was based on a plebiscite held in 1990 and the declaration of independence was followed by a 10-day war against the Yugoslav army, which ended with a ceasefire agreement. The first years after the independence were marked by the country’s transition from a socialist system to a democratic society and a market economy. A multi-party-political system was established, with different political parties forming. Between 1991 and 2004, the political situation in Slovenia was quite dynamic. In the early years, the ruling political force was Demos, which was a coalition of several centre-right parties. In 1992, a period of political instability followed, with successive governments of different coalitions. In 1996, the political scene changed when a new party, the Liberal Democracy of Slovenia (LDS), led by Janez Drnovšek, won the election, being the first major left-wing party. During this period, Slovenia pursued economic reforms, joined international organisations such as the European Union, and strengthened its political and economic institutions. Important events included the adoption of the new Slovenian constitution in 1991, which laid down the fundamental rights and freedoms of citizens, and Slovenia’s accession to the European Union in 2004. This accession was an important milestone in the country’s political development, as Slovenia became part of the European project and strengthened its links with other EU members.

The nature of the relaxedness project has never been clarified. Was it a special forma mentis that would miraculously mentally transform the Slovenes? Was it something more than just an electoral boost and a slogan? The vision offered in the political program relied on the assumption that the term is self-explanatory. Yet this seemingly well-established concept begs definition. It was introduced in 1999 in a notorious issue of the Nova revija journal titled ‘Relaxed Slovenia – Settlement In the Name of the Future’ (Adam and Grafenauer, 1999), in which the intellectuals gathered around Nova revija in an attempt to settle the issue of monopoly over financial, media and economic fields, but primarily of the ideological monopoly, allegedly held by the LDS and the communist ‘clique’. This collection of essays became a manifesto of the circle associated with the ‘Slovenian Spring’ (Vezjak, 2005).

Nova revija played a key role in the founding of Demos, the political movement that led to democratic change in Slovenia. Its articles, essays and debates helped shape public opinion and mobilise people in support of democratic change. Other important initiatives were public appeals titled ‘The Hour of European Truth for Slovenia’ and ‘Something Has To Be Done’. Rhetoric about relaxation of Slovenia that year reached its peak when the above-mentioned intellectual circle, supported by three right-oriented political parties (Slovenian Democratic Party, Nova Slovenija or NSi party, and Slovenian People’s Party), organised a social gathering (or ‘the meeting of truth’, as their opponents saw it) only a week before the election. It was held under the slogan ‘Towards a Relaxed Slovenia’ and took place on the 25^th of September 2004 in Ljubljana. Before this gathering, the organizers held three successive sessions in Ljubljana, Maribor, and Koper, at which they spoke about the traps of corruption and ‘vulgar’ liberalism in an attempt to convince the public of the necessity of political transformation of Slovenia. Following electoral victory, the concept was suddenly adopted by governmental bodies, ministries and the Parliament, and had been repeatedly revived throughout 2005 and 2006 by the active members of the civil initiative Zbor za republiko (Assembly for the Republic). In the meantime, relaxation has become the buzzword of the day and later of the new political and social era. The unexpected expressions of emotional release or freedom and the release of energy and relaxedness have been unavoidable companions of political life in Slovenia ever since the new political breeze swept the country. This invisible and fluid concept hung in the air throughout 2004, the year of the parliamentary election, pointing to a new course of a new Slovenia looming on the horizon. Relaxedness, originally taken from Martin Heidegger and his philosophical term Die Gelassenheit, was directly and uncritically adopted by Slovenian right-wing intellectuals that gathered around the Nova revija journal and became an integral part of the government’s political discourse during the run-up to the elections.

I will examine how this slogan was fundamental to the program of the then new political elite and later also the government, as well as the school system, and how various systems of social and political activity and practice were subject to relaxation, whatever such a semantically vague concept, truly incomprehensible to the general public, actually meant. In addition to traditional rhetorical devices such as national myths, discourse on Slovenian national substance (‘narodna substanca’) and empty populist phrases such as ‘intolerance towards independence’ or ‘xenophobia towards Slovenian-ness’, relaxation emerged as the central signifier of changes with a nationalist background. Slovenia needs to relax, argued leading politicians, and changes are needed to make such relaxedness possible (Apih, 2004). Following the constitution of a new government led by Janez Janša and the announcement of implementation of a program for the future titled ‘Slovenia On A New Road’, the euphoria accompanying the new terminology did not subside. The public wondered how it was going to be translated into reality and which spheres of everyday life it was going to inhabit. Was it just a form of address, a part of political therapy bestowed on citizens and as such just an empty rhetoric extended beyond the elections?

The inflationary use of this term indicated that it had been successfully mobilized, but the heterogeneity of it implied that meanings were revealed superficiality and immaturity of the concept rather than anything else. Sproščenost suddenly pertained to the following heterogeneous areas and attitudes: relaxed manner of expression and communication, relaxed atmosphere within education and economy, as well as within foreign policy, relaxed behaviour and relaxed stance as a reconciliatory attitude (Vezjak, 2007). The ubiquity of this new signifier, functioning as a kind of passe partout, almost created the impression that nobody knew what the dispersive and heterogeneous concept meant in political context, but everyone behaved as if its meaning were self-evident. The use of the sproščenost slogan functioned almost as a binary relationship between the signifier and the signified in Saussure’s sign theory (de Saussure, 1983), where the last concept mentioned is the mental concept, and thus represented different things to different receivers.

The new conceptual gain became a synonym for the general rhetoric of tolerance, openness, and dialogue; it became a fashionable motto, but it also wanted to become content. As an intentional or unintentional underlying idea of the new government’s program, it stretched across a vast range of changed perspectives within various spheres of social life: schools and education, the media, economy, and foreign policy. It was not just during the public debate organized by the SDS in July 2004 that Janša said that he wished to achieve the golden age of Slovenia’s development with a program called ‘SDS for The Golden Age of Slovenia’ (STA, 2004).

The very change of government was almost, eo ipso, a kind of relaxation for its protagonists. Such was a peremptory assessment by Peter Jambrek, one of the ideologists of sproščenost, in an interview for Delo’s Saturday Supplement in response to the clear question of how relaxed Slovenia came to be immediately after the 2004 election. It brought a ‘moment of relaxation’, but not for those who were defeated and who had their moment of ‘sobering up’, or ‘at any rate, something that, psychologically speaking, is opposite to relaxed mood’ (Praprotnik, 2004). Relaxedness is obviously dichotomous: while some become relaxed, others are gripped by the sobering spasm. If some become relaxed, others must cease to be relaxed.

The electoral victory was just one part of the task, indeed an inevitable precondition for fulfilling the program goals. Jambrek was not very precise when he referred to the future of new Slovenia by claiming relaxation of Slovenia is simply an allegory and can comprise all sorts of efforts on the part of the government and various institutions. He saw it more as a program that has only started with the electoral success of the parties affiliated with the Assembly for the Republic and as a beginning of a longer relaxation process in various areas ranging from education to economy and political and cultural life. Dimitrij Rupel spoke similarly 6 months later in an interview for the Mag magazine (Markeš, 2005), when he explained various dimensions of relaxedness and its broadness:

“Relaxedness is a slogan of the Assembly for the Republic. Relaxedness definitely has an essential importance. What is meant is relaxed mood in terms of economy, in the sense that people should create as their mind tells them and as their knowledge allows them. There are so many administrative hurdles here. Of course, not for the privileged ones! Look at how many billionaires we have. On the other hand, ordinary citizens can hardly get through some administrative procedure for acquiring a construction permit! But even more important is relaxation in the sense of relaxed spirit. Some link relaxedness to unrestraint, but that’s not what it is about.”

The relaxedness also implied various changes in content and concepts, and was a handy tool in creating politics (Vezjak, 2007). Sproščenost is an established Slovenian translation of Heidegger’s concept of Die Gelassenheit, which has been articulated in a narrow philosophical discourse hardly understandable in this case. The intellectuals associated with Nova revija gained reputation as important interpreters of politics whose contributions in the processes of the disintegration of Yugoslavia, gaining of independence, and shaping of the political foundations of present Slovenia were indisputable, towards the end of the 1980s. In this sense the authors such as Tine Hribar, Ivan Urbančič, France Bučar, and Peter Jambrek importantly influenced the understanding of political circumstances and movements in Slovenia. In this case, relaxedness has been taken over by Slovenian Heideggerians who used it in their articles and translations, and also in the wider everyday social context.

Some of them were co-authors of the May Declaration (Majniška deklaracija), a political declaration formulated by a coalition of the first Slovenian political opposition parties in 1989, which for the first time firmly demanded a sovereign and democratic state for Slovenian people, in which they would independently decide their relations with South Slavic and other nations in the framework of a renewed Europe. They took part in independence-gaining processes and the establishment of parliamentary democracy, as well as assisted in the writing of the first Slovenian Constitution and the shaping of the first Demos government (Kovačič and Kuzmanič, 2004). The disintegration of the Demos coalition led to the political takeover by the Liberal Democracy party that was not close to the political right wing or the Nova revija intellectuals, so the question of the latter’s support for the right-wing at the parliamentary elections in 2004 hung in the air for a long time.

Jambrek made effort to include relaxedness in his introductory text to ‘Relaxed Slovenia – Settlement In the Name of the Future’ (Adam and Grafenauer, 1999). For him ‘freedom of the press and religion in themselves do not eliminate old ideological monopolies, nor can they relax intellectual torpidity which is a consequence of the long-lasting fear of the total government’ (Adam and Grafenauer, 1999). Or: ‘Instead of intellectual freedom, autonomy and creativity the governmental bodies introduce into the universities, schools, and culture the principles of bureaucratic discipline and hierarchy’ (Adam and Grafenauer, 1999). The omnipotent and omnipresent state presented one of the main obstacles for development and release of creative initiatives, as we also need ‘inner relaxation’ and ‘many-sided releasing of creative initiatives and energy’, to use Jambrek’s descriptions.

He later became one of the leading figures in the development of private education, founding a private university and a plethora of faculties. At the European Faculty of Law, which is a member of his »New University«, students can easily buy various amenities. With 500 euros, the cost of the ‘super-standard package EVRO-AS’, they can choose an individual exam date four times per summer. Not only do they not have to pay for the fourth attempt after three failed attempts, as is the standard of public universities in Slovenia, they can even suggest their own time slot for oral exams. For the same amount, the student gains exclusive, after-hours access to the librarian, not to mention the exclusive right to direct personal contact with the vice-dean for student and academic affairs. (Weiss, 2023)

Fictive philosopheme and a strange case of education

Oftentimes, political leaders apply simple slogans as alluring aphorisms to articulate their ideological standpoints, to persuade their audience, to entrench ideology in public consciousness, and to drive political action. So far discourse analysis has widely engaged with the impact of slogans in political genres (Hodges, 2014; Veg, 2016). They are usually concise and memorable phrases that are used to convey a message or idea in a simple and easy-to-remember manner. In education, slogans are used to communicate the principles and values that institutions and educators believe in. They serve as powerful tools to inspire, motivate, and guide students towards academic success and personal growth. Slogans are sometimes means of focussing attention and exhorting to action (Urdang and Robbins, 1984); they have distinct functions in political communications, such as declaration of intent, a call for intellectual support, power assertion or state propaganda as a means of mass persuasion. When used through attention-getting phrases deployed in political communication, they simplify the task of communicators and audiences in a situation »they simplify the tasks of communicators and audiences in conditions where there are many ideas competing for a place in the political agenda, and a great deal of noise from competing messages” (Sharkansky, 2002).

Badiou (2018) claims that the theory of good state, legitimate regime, the good and the bad in the community, democracy and dictatorship relates to politics only through a political detour, meaning the inevitable ‘fictive philosopheme’. The difference between the influence of Slovenian Heideggerians on the previous government and the influence they exerted in 2004 was, after thorough political considerations about the role of the state, nation, and independence in particular, in getting exclusively mixed with the hard philosophical thought. While Urbančič’s political vision of ‘Slovenian-ness’ always drew on the concept of power, and Nietzschean will to power in particular, as well as on Heidegger’s existentialism, Hribar and his circle found inspiration in existential hermeneutics and ontology (Adam and Grafenauer, 1999). Therefore, it is possible to say that the victory of SDS in 2004 was a philosophically inspired achievement of the Nova revija circle. Heideggerians established that anxiety blocked the ‘care for living’, which prevented the possibility of having identity. Since there is no free being-in-the-world, we cannot become what we really are. ‘This can be realised only where being in the world is realised through a relaxed care for the whole and for the concept of “being as a whole”’ (Adam and Grafenauer, 1999).

The articulation of Die Gelassenheit was therefore modified to suit the domestic needs and it exceeds the philosophical framework. Heidegger (2007) addressed the notion extensively in his later works, first in a text with the same title dating back to 1959, one part of which is ‘Conversations on a Country Path About Thinking’; this text belongs to the later periods of his philosophical development). Die Gelassenheit as submission is a kind of existential and ethical imperative of letting-be – in Heidegger, this term is anything but monosemic, and, as the editor of the German edition Ingrid Schussler says, it has religious connotations and is conceptually borrowed from mysticism (Heidegger, 2007). ‘Releasement’ as a historic prostost in Slovenian language is an equivalent of freedom and reaches beyond it (Komel, 2004).

To make the things more complicated, the notion is riddled with difficulties within the field of philosophy and within Heidegger’s philosophical thought. For Meister Eckhart, Die Gelassenheit meant surrender to God (Dalle Pezze, 2009). The active moment of abandonment suggests that the man can abandon himself to God only after he abandons himself. With this, abandonment ceases to be ‘abandon’ and becomes commitment, and commitment may be understood as ‘releasement’, seen as by abandoning himself, the man becomes free of all created beings to whom he remains tied until he is liberated from his created self. Abandonment, or a state without will, and releasement lead the man to freedom from all that has been created, so that he can be filled with God.

According to Hribar (1994), Slovenian translation makes it difficult to come close to Die Gelassenheit. In his opinion, the literally translation would be Slovenian ‘opuščenost’ (roughly corresponding to abandonment), not in the sense of ‘opuščena navada’ (abandoned habit) or ‘opuščeni rudnik’ (abandoned mine), but reflexively in the sense of the syntagm ‘opuščen sem’, meaning not succumbing to sadness or joy. Hribar (1994) says that ‘to relax’ therefore means to be calm with regard to ‘both joy and sadness, and anything that might be the source of one or another kind of emotion’. Heidegger strives for ‘releasement towards things’ whereby he has in mind primarily the attitude towards the world of technical things, which should be set aside. He explains this as follows: ‘We may stay, or become, simple and calm at any moment. We are simply calm. We feel fine and good in some wonderful way. This is achieved by distancing oneself from the world of technical things and objects in that world’ (Heidegger, 2007). Rejection of technology in Heidegger, as a stance towards the world of technical things, is surprisingly close to the resistance to the technical world demonstrated by the Amish, for whom Die Gelassenheit is a religious and social guidance (Thomson 2000).

How was the philosophical concept translated into social practice, specifically into educational views? After the victory of SDS, Janša as a prime minister started to demand ‘good and relaxed schools that will teach and educate young people for life’ and the modernisation of the educational system that will be pulled out from under the previous minister’s stifling shadow and ‘exposed to the European sun’ (Repovž, 2004). This further means that understanding relaxedness as a slogan was a prerequisite for properly reading the political intentions of the new government. It is interesting that the implications of relaxation first struck exactly the educational system. Janša reiterated his conclusions a month and a half later in an opening speech, now in the role of the Prime Minister: ‘School must be excellent, but also relaxed, such in which the students will not be just containers for the storage of information and data, but active participants, whom school will enable to understand, use and make sense of the acquired knowledge’. (Repovž, 2004).

It is precisely the educational system that was to be mentioned in this connection most frequently afterwards – we should strive for ‘relaxed schools’, was the message of a number of appeals, and ‘education for life’ was the syntax that could most easily be imagined as instant manuals for spiritual growth. As a consequence, during the first months following the elections this was reflected in the new and statistically unconfirmed conclusion that students in Slovenia were overburdened – an assessment made possible by the hegemony of the relaxedness concept according to which relaxation was what the students missed most. The leader of the SDS parliamentary group at the time, Mirko Zamernik, resisted the discussion about overburdened students that was initiated in the National Assembly: ‘When I said that students were overburdened I wanted to emphasize the necessity of change in our schools so that schools will become more friendly and more relaxed. I’m still convinced that they are not such at the moment. I did not intend to criticize the work of teachers with this statement, but expressed expectation that the new prime minister will ensure that school will be friendly and relaxed towards students. And not only towards students! Towards teachers, as well, who are today overburdened with administrative work … I will myself work, as much as possible, towards friendly and relaxed school for students and teachers’. (Zamernik, 2004)

The inflation of apologetic articulation of ‘relaxedness’ was not just a defense mechanism, but perhaps a cause that gave rise to the thesis itself: what if the recognition that students were overburdened was caused by the belief in ‘non-relaxedness’, which, by definition, is always in short supply. Just a few days later, on 28 September 2004, Janez Janša addressed foreign guests, candidates, party members, and sympathizers at an event that concluded the election campaign. The hostile metaphor was that LDS’s promises are like a lottery. ‘That is really the Slovenia Express’, concluded Janša piquantly, and listed several demands including ‘good and relaxed schools that will teach and educate young people for life, and the modernization of the educational system, which must as soon as possible step from Gaber’s [then Minister of Education] stifling shadow and into the European sun’. (Sever, 2004) The Slovenian right-wing was ready for all challenges, jusqu’au bout, and so were its voters.

The issue of school is always an ideological issue par excellence. The then minister of education, Milan Zver, commented that the parental interference in the selection of textbooks for pupils and students was an ideological problem that demands a relaxed attitude. This idea was put forward by the ‘Association for School Made to the Measure of Man’. Later on, he attempted to extend his explanation to historical textbooks as well. As regards required reading, his opinion was as follows:

“That could be a problem. Today, parents are actively involved in the shaping of educational policy, whether indirectly or directly. I already said that the educational system is like football. Everyone knows all about it. In short, every change in the educational system is perceived through children and as affecting themselves, too. I remember the case of Vitomil Zupan. Probably, some time will have to pass before we start seeing certain things from a more relaxed viewpoint, liberated from ideological inoculation and ideological basis. Some people are ‘allergic’ to certain works, including literary works, for example, those dealing with Partisan fighters.” (Zver, 2005)

Speaking about the amended law on elementary schools, which mentioned reduction and elimination of external exams, his MP colleague Jože Tanko of SDS similarly resorted to relaxation in giving a diagnosis ‘that the elimination of external exams from enrolment procedure means that some relaxed mood has been returning to school thanks to this pressure on external exams’. (Vezjak, 2007) Rudi Moge, an MP from the Liberal democratic party (LDS), objected that it was a ‘too harsh intervention of politics into the area of education’, but to no avail (Vezjak, 2007). What is surprising is the lack of arguments in all cases cited: under the disguise of relaxedness, it is possible to demand anything in the apparent concern for overburdened students. Ideologies have effects only if they successfully interpellate the subjects winning them over to follow. In his analysis of power, Michel Foucault claimed that the link between power and free rejection of submission cannot be broken (Laval, 2018). Citizens know what they do - the crucial problem of power is not the problem of voluntary enslavement. How at all could one wish to be enslaved? This approach was accurately and clearly confuted by Joule and Beauvois (2010) in their treatise on liberal servitude, an analysis of submission. People submit voluntarily and good definitions of ideology anticipate this. However, it seems that in his analysis of the subject and power relations Foucault said something that has relation to the gesture of relaxation (Laval, 2018). His proposal that power should be understood as ‘la conduite de la conduite’, meaning something like government of government, arises from the dual meaning of the verb conduire, which means to guide/lead others (in the political or other sense), and at the same time it denotes a mode of behaviour and conduct within the given field of possibilities. The dual meaning of the verb, that is, conduire in the sense ‘to guide’, ‘to drive’, and se conduire in the sense ‘to behave’ or ‘conduct’, nicely suits the nature of relaxedness: on the one hand it is an imperative of power, and on the other hand, a demand with regard to conduct that is imposed on, required, or expected from citizens. The dichotomy remains: no matter how the power holders aim for and promise relaxedness, their subjects are those who have to attain relaxation. If Heidegger’s existential analysis makes sense, then relaxation is an individual act, it is invariably a kind of care for oneself, to stay with the French philosopher, cura sui, the technique of mastering.

Well educated and relaxed: The final conclusion

Sproščenost as the educational slogan, although not fully fleshed out, had potential to encapsulate the core values and principles of an educational institution or a particular educational campaign, fostering a sense of unity and identity within educational communities. By rallying around a common slogan, students, teachers, and staff could develop a shared sense of purpose and belonging. If it were fully realised, it would have an undeniable political and ideological colour. As an ideological and election motto, sproščenost was an unmeditated political appeal and one of the forms of cultural awakening by which right-oriented intellectuals diagnosed the state of ‘Slovenian national system’, to use their own terminology.

They employed it to describe the social, psychological, economic, political, and other events. I tried to outline how this originally philosophical concept was uncritically adopted by the right-wing intellectuals gathered around N. revija, who, disregarding Heidegger’s original idea, arbitrarily adapted it to meet their needs at the time; that is, mobilization of people and explanation of the situation of society, culture, media, economy, and the like. It is not possible to draw a clear-cut dividing line separating different readings of the function of the slogan (ideology, awakening, philosophical concept, educational, or similar guideline). Evidently, the various uses of this term suggest not any specific articulation, but rather the opposite.

Was the slogan of relaxedness actually an (ideological) mythization, which is structurally – qua mythization – irrational? The ambiguity of this signifier beyond full description, emptiness of meaning and transcendental elusiveness, make it inevitable that in certain cases the quoted conceptual uses of relaxedness escape the grip of usual articulation only with difficulty. In a number of signifying uses, the concept is invariably universal and therefore its functioning is quite simple: it explains everything, and at the same time remains a systemic, project-based concept. It is a way out of crisis in every area. It is a diagnosis and a universal medicament at the same time. Let us attempt to answer the initial question: does this eminent concept conceal a special type of ideology, in this case also educational one? The answer could be affirmative. It usually operates by demasking and falsifying the structural reality of society which is antagonistic as such. It is a kind of battle of all against all. In some sense, relaxation has become a name for the demasking of the structure of society, for an unnatural state, appeal to the man and his genuine, already relaxed nature. It is a kind of appeal to return to humanity, man’s de-alienation and humanization. We are alienated from ourselves, from our essence, so we need the government as a new guide to lead us in rediscovering ourselves. And that is where the ideological power of this concept lies: reality is distorted, fetishized, mystified, mythologized, so it needs to be guided back to its true bearing, in accordance with the wishes of the ruler and his prompters.

The three relatively arbitrary functions of relaxedness, that is, an ideologeme, a slogan and a philosopheme, seem interrelated. The ideologeme behind which is an ideology, primarily of the Nova revija circle, the slogan behind which is a political awakening, primarily fostered by the right-wing, and the philosopheme behind which is a particular philosophy, primarily Heidegger’s – all spill over into one another. It is impossible to draw a dividing line between the three, because they operate simultaneously. The indicated uses of the notion certainly do not suggest that it is articulated, but rather the opposite. The question is whether relaxedness in Slovenia, as an ideologeme, a slogan, and a philosopheme, has become and is intrinsically meant as a backing for the negative effects of ‘relaxation’ in the sense of negative changes? Was it merely a pretext for political and other modifications in the direction of different, less permissive, and less democratic values, and for the introduction of political exclusivism, even for the release of ‘energy’ in the sense of introducing non-democratic and autocratic approaches under the pretence of pluralization and political neutrality? And, last but not least, was relaxation in the media field a term for the revolution within the media, media intolerance, political control over the media, a reason/excuse for achieving particular interests supported by a specific political party or the ruling power?

Relaxedness was simply a back label for nationally motivated violence, a way to legitimize silencing and submission in the name of the Nation, invariably serving as a screen for particular interests and how at all can we surpass the antagonism between intentions and acts: the government wants to relax the media, so it takes away the autonomy of public television; it wants to relax school, so it introduces segregation of the Roma children; it wants to relax economy, but it fiercely fights for ‘national interests’; it wants to relax attitude towards history, but proposes its own, ‘correct’ reading of historical facts. Relaxation stood for an ad hoc legitimization of political motives and was not just a predicament used to conceal the deficit of political visions. Sproščenost as a slogan certainly did not contribute in any particular way to the harmful consequences within the education system, as it was simply not concretised in measures and because it was conceived in such an abstract way, did not have a precise content behind it. On the other hand, in 2007, a year before the end of the government’s term of office, it slowly began to fade, probably because even the government itself felt that it was semantically too ambiguous and therefore useless. Spontaneously it became forgotten and today appears only occasionally as an equally empty catchphrase in the political jargon, losing its initial significance.