JCJ and Marko Perković Thompson — “What Belongs to Everyone”
JCJ:
Marko, people think Croatia is torn between ghosts—red stars and black shirts. But I don’t see ideology. I see property. I see theft disguised as transition.
Thompson:
(smiles grimly)
That’s because the war ended, but the plunder didn’t. They waved new flags and kept the same hands in the pockets.
JCJ:
Exactly. So let me provoke you. Suppose we split it cleanly—not left and right, but public and private.
Call it whatever insults people most so they finally listen.
Thompson:
(laughs)
You always do that. Go on.
JCJ:
The Adriatic—public.
Every beach, every island shore—public.
Not owned by oligarchs, not leased for 99 years to foreign funds. Belongs to the fisherman, the child, the pilgrim, the soldier who bled for it.
Thompson:
That’s not communism. That’s Croatia before lawyers arrived.
JCJ:
Plitvice Lakes—public.
You don’t privatize God’s handwriting. You steward it. You guard it. Entrance fees go to maintenance and Croatian families, not offshore accounts.
Thompson:
If you fence Plitvice, you fence the soul. Even the Partisans knew that.
JCJ:
Now here’s where people choke.
Farms—private.
Factories—private.
Family-owned. Worker-owned. Croatian-owned.
No state commissar. No party parasite. No EU bureaucrat telling a Slavonian farmer how curved his cucumber is.
Thompson:
So the land feeds the people, and the people defend the land.
JCJ:
Yes. Call the beaches “Communist” if you want—because they belong to everyone.
Call the farms “Fascist” if you want—because they demand discipline, work, hierarchy, responsibility.
But strip the words of their ghosts. What remains is order.
Thompson:
The problem isn’t ideology. It’s that Croatia was sold twice—once by Belgrade, once by bankers.
JCJ:
And a third time by our own cowards.
A nation of warriors governed by accountants.
Thompson:
(somber)
People accuse me of nostalgia. But what I miss isn’t a regime.
I miss boundaries.
This is sacred. That is earned.
This you don’t touch. That you build with your hands.
JCJ:
That’s the real split.
Not left vs right.
But sacred vs profane.
Thompson:
Then sing it plainly:
The sea is not for sale.
The lakes are not for sale.
But the field?
The field is yours—if you work it.
JCJ:
And if you abandon it, you lose it. No speculation. No absentee lords.
Croatia isn’t a hotel.
It’s a home.
Thompson:
That’s a song people would understand.
And fear.
JCJ:
Good.
Because only thieves fear clarity.