Arts & International Affairs: Volume 2, Number 2 | Page 141

Can cultural production
make people less angry at
each other?
Arno Vinkovic
Arno Vinkovic was born in Zagreb, Croatia. Completed degrees: MA in Philosophy and Sociology
and MA in Political Science (University of Zagreb) Study visits: University College London and
Bauhaus University. Currently employed as a Project Manager in the Open Media Group (NGO).
Worked as a Project Manager Assistant in Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, Expert Advisor on Statistical
Analysis and Research, and has completed Blue Book Traineeship in the European Commission
(EASME). He is the Founder and Creative Director of the FPZG Drama Group (Drama group of the
University of Zagreb) and DG DRAMA (Drama group of the European Commission Trainees). He
has written and directed 7 award-winning plays and received 5 awards for different scripts and for
the overall contribution to humanities and social sciences. Arno has worked as an Assistant Director
in numerous theatres in Croatia and Germany. He thinks politics is the ultimate performance art.
We are all currently living in a marvellous age of uncertainty. Anxiety is
clearly visible in government policies, media outlets, fake news, and social
media posts. It presents a clear statement of suppressed anger towards social
and political issues. Anger is an agent that shields against the unknown,
uncertainty, and weaknesses. The pluralism of narratives and discourses has
not enabled us to be tolerant and understanding, but rather we have become
more fearful and frightened of the uncertainty of everything around us.
Fear lies in the root of all evils, from which anxiety blossoms negative emotions
such as disgust, shame, loneliness and at the end, human uncertainty. Anger
builds up in destructive bursts against something specific: religion, social
policy, ethnicity, history, forms of expression, or person. But those targets
are often scapegoats for something else. Unfortunately, it is very unlikely
that humans can escape the social patterns that enable anger and anxiety.
In his Philosophical Enquiry, Edmund Burke
states that fear deprives our conscience of all
reason. Furthermore, Martin Heidegger clearly
connects fear with uncertainty and perceived
possible threats. Anxiety puts us off the root of
the problem—our hidden fears.
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