/ world today news/ The famous radio presenter, who on the same day of the presentation of his latest book became the object of furious attacks by other media persons during a discussion in CEM, and in his absence, stated that in today’s polarizing time, in his opinion the main division between people is those who love freedom and those who do not. He assured that he will always be in the first group and considers it scary that “the world will turn into a one-dimensional space”. Helikon Bookstore-Vitosha was filled with intellectuals, public figures, politicians and journalists who came to hear and congratulate Volgin for his book and his position
“I wrote this book as something that can be called an explanation out of love for the BNR – for the BNR institution and for all the people who worked, are working and will work there. I’m not a person who particularly respects institutions, I’m more nihilistic. But I have a deep respect for the Radio especially, because the people there have given me the opportunity to learn a lot and show what I have learned. So I will always love the Radio, no matter what happens. Although I also have my criticisms of the BNR, myself, and everything that happens there.”
With these words, the famous radio presenter from the “Horizon” program of the BNR Peter Volgin addressed the numerous intellectuals, public figures, politicians and journalists gathered on the evening of March 21 at the “Helikon”-Vitosha bookstore in Sofia for the presentation of his book “Life on the Radio”. The guests had filled both balconies of the bookstore, and the stairs leading to them.
An emphasis in Volgin’s speech was freedom, which, according to him, is inextricably linked to the BNR. He pointed out that in today’s polarized times, the most essential division between people is the grouping of those who love freedom and those who do not. He placed himself in the first group, explaining that he was not interested in the world being one-dimensional and following only the status quo, but on the contrary, it should be challenged, and people should be prompted to think and act.
It is important to note that a few hours earlier, exactly on the same day Volgin’s book was presented, the journalist also became the object of furious attacks by other media persons during a discussion at CEM, and that too in his absence. Ruzha Raicheva published a detailed and eloquent report on this with quotes from the speeches on offnews.bg, as it was also mentioned at the presentation of “Life on the Radio”.
Volgin gave his answer to these ugly attacks, but also to many others who took him at face value, in his speech, stating:
“Today there are many divisions between people: left and right, liberals and conservatives, nationalists and cosmopolitans. For me, the most important division is between people who love freedom and people who don’t. You will say: but how can there be people who do not love freedom? There is. And looking at what’s happening, they seem to be getting more and more.
There is a paradox here. People who do not like freedom are usually called democrats, liberals, progressives. And that sounds very nice. Many analysts even call them that. Famous psychologists have explained very clearly why there are people who choose to escape from freedom. Therefore, I will not go into these details.
The worrying thing in today’s Bulgarian case is that these people are becoming more and more vocal. You will hear from self-proclaimed liberals that there cannot be two points of view. There should be only one – the permitted, politically correct one. And nothing but her, because it harms.
This is not only a Bulgarian, but also a pan-European phenomenon. And I say it with pain for European civilization, which is ultimately based on freedom. But this civilization is currently becoming an increasingly closed society, increasingly one-dimensional, increasingly uncritically thinking about the dogmas that are imposed. And that is very sad.
What I’m trying to do, like many people in BNR, is to somehow resist this trend, to resist the world becoming a one-dimensional space. Because that’s scary. It seems to me that this is the main battle of the day. The battle between people who want to have different opinions, different views, and people who don’t want that, want to live in the matrix, live in this very easy, very predictable, very boring ultimately world. And what I and my other colleagues in Radio are trying to do is to make this world more interesting.
In this book I have tried to tell how I have always tried to do something different because it is more interesting to me. Very quickly I get bored and bored with what is generally done. I want to always be doing some different things that are thought-provoking, and if they are anger-inducing, even better. We need to make people angry. We have to make them angry. Because that’s the only way to move forward. Otherwise, you stay in one place if people are happy, if they don’t think.”
Excited words Peter Volgin said about his close friend and colleague Bojan Petrovwho passed away at the end of April 2021 and to whom he dedicated a special chapter in his book:
“We have worked with him for more than 20 years. He was very intelligent, sensible, knowledgeable, talented, but above all a good person. This is very rare. I cannot say that I am a good person. He was a wonderful friend. An amazing husband and father. The person I’ve gotten along with best all these years. It is incredibly rare to have a person next to you with whom you can understand one word, without long explanations. And everyone who has experienced it is happy, because finding understanding nowadays is hellishly difficult. Bojan and I managed to do it. It showed in all the things we did together that he did. It is incredibly rare to meet such people – with whom you can say anything and the response will enrich you or make you even a little better person. For me, this is incredibly important and I am very happy that I met him and that we were together for many years.”
Speaking about the Radio, Volgin said that since he was a child, he listened to various radio programs, including the “Knowledge” program, from which he learned a lot. He also pointed out the free spirit in the Radio, which was also felt in socialist times, giving as an example the prominent “different voice” of Viza Nedyalkova.
And about today’s weather he said:
“We live in a time of our own making. There is no such thing as the time! No, we do it ourselves. And I think I’ll continue to spend my time the way I like it.”
He talks about his book “Life in the Radio”. Prof. Vyara Angelova, teacher at FJMK in SU “St. Cl. Ohridski”. She recalled that Volgin was also “seduced” by television at a certain period of his professional career, but he “remained a radio personality”. Because, as Associate Professor Angelova said, “he understood that there is freedom of speech on the radio, and vanity of speech on television.”
She lined up several highlights in the book and in the specifics of radio work, highlighting the audience, the audience, as the most important element of this work. “Peter infuriates and aggresses her, but also enlightens and inspires,” noted Assoc. Angelova. At the same time, she pointed out that “the public is gradually disappearing” along with the new technologies. But he also emphasized the ability of Radio to survive because it is constantly changing, and the best thing is that such an impulse comes from within, not from outside, from political pressure.
After the presentation of the book, a long line of friends, colleagues, participants in his shows, listeners and readers curved around Volgin to congratulate him and get an autograph of his book. Among the guests at the presentation of “Life on the Radio” were Andrey Raichev, Ani Zarkova, Alexander Sivilov, Alexander Simov, Valentin Vacev, Grigor Sariyski, Dora Chichkova, Iskra Baeva, Petko Todorov, Silvia Velikova, Tanya Velichkova, Yuri Borisov, Yulia Vladimirova and many other.
On his Facebook profile, Peter Volgin wrote on March 22:
“Huge thanks to everyone who came to the presentation of my book “Life in the Radio” (published by “East-West”) at the Helikon bookstore! I believe that this is support not only for me, but in general for freedom of speech and thought in Bulgaria. In no case should we allow our country to become a place where only one point of view dominates and there is no other speaking than the “correct” one.
I am grateful to Lyuben Kozarev, who was not afraid to publish the book of the “terrible Volgin”, despite the warnings of the “Orthodox Euro-Atlanticists”.
It was an honor for me to have Associate Professor Vyara Angelova speak about my book, who is one of the best connoisseurs of the Radio phenomenon and the author of interesting and serious books on the subject. Thanks again everyone!”
Volgin did not leave without a reaction the discussion in CEM mentioned here about self-censorship, which took place again on March 21, a few hours before the presentation of “Life on the Radio”. Here is his Facebook comment:
“Ah, what an interesting discussion was held in CEM. However, the most interesting thing is that some of those actively discussing my humble persona were not bothered at all by the fact that I am not physically there. Or maybe this fact made them braver? You know there are some people who are as quiet as mice when they meet you, but if you’re not around, they can’t stop talking about you. Because I am a humanist, I promise that I will never attend such discussions, so that the discussants can not be worried and freely talk about what they want”.
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