Last week marked the 20th anniversary of the formal break up of Yugoslavia; Slovenia declared its independence on June 25, 1991. To commemorate that event, Aleksandar Krzavac sends a selection of “vintage aphorisms” dedicated to that disappeared era of communism-socialism. (For more of Krzavac’s aphorisms, click here, here, and here.) “Comparing that system to today’s globalization is more like comparing different civilizations than systems,” Krzavac writes. “People who once lived in Yugoslavia, Poland, Russia know it well—basic social values, economic relations, interpersonal communication, lifestyles, individual freedoms of thinking and moving were completely different. Therefore, almost all aphorisms written in former communist (socialist) countries are more or less political. People in general—and writers, journalists and university professors in particular—felt the enormous burden of censorship. They feared to openly criticize the government and ruling party. Books were banned as were some metaphors or allegories due to misinterpretation by the ruling party. Now fear of censorship has been replaced by widespread fear of job loss. It sounds bizarre but a recent survey conducted in Serbia showed that people in Serbia are more afraid of job loss than of death. So, even in today’s democracy, writers still have lots of work; only the topics of criticism are different.”

Don’t build prisons; close the borders.

All human organs are biological except the brain, which is ideological.

After arrest, the writer figured out the point of proverb ‘Silence is golden’.

The writer is still at large; the police cannot make out what his metaphors mean.

I think, therefore I am an anachronism.

Ouch, I really hope I won’t be run over by the wheel of progress.

It’s not called a crisis here; it’s called the economic cycle.

Our politicians are very hygienic; they substituted brainwashing for money laundering.

Upon the advice of my lawyer I stopped writing aphorisms.