The new (changed) past as value factor of development

Image of the past is an active framework of reference values that indirectly gives a meaning to and influences social development. The past provides a symbolic framework to the individuals and groups by which they conceptualize their existence. Changing the image of the past is an important part of the transition of values. The past is an active framework of social action not just passively reframed ideas adapted to the needs of the present. Since 1990s the past has been radically changed, reinvented and revisioned in newly formed Balkan states in order to initiate new development towards the national capitalism. The changing of the past was rather patchy in Serbia. While the Serbian opposition in 1990s (similarly to ruling elites in other newly founded states) has reconciled quickly its vision of the past to the new image of national capitalism, the radical changes in official statements about the past happened only after the 2000. Broadly speaking, in the Serbian memory culture there are two main value orientations marked by the past: (1) antifascism and (2) Hilandar (a famous Serbian cloister in Greece). Antifascism is a mark of rationalism, multiculturalism, brotherhood and unity, left position and anticonservatism, Hilandar is a mark of religion and national exclusivity and conservatism and the right values. The first one withdraws, the second is presently hegemonic