On a botanical analogy in modern theory of society

The author, first of all, undertakes to perceive and analyze the role that the metaphor of 'root' plays, as well as the discourse connected with it - 'rooted', 'root out' and so on - in order to examine the functioning of botanical metaphors in modern political theory. Ideological duality is here shown as, in equal measure but in different ways, fixed to the idea of the root of human existence or of the well ordered society - and an image of a tree in blossom, if it has grown out of this condition - in which it is a privileged possession, giving the right to 'radical' actions. The difference is found where one group advocates unconditional nurturing of the given root and the other one urgent necessity of replacing it with new one. As a conclusion, it is suggested that the abandoning of the floral metaphor could not only open up space for reasonable dispute about the questions that it was believed to answer, but also that this kind of retreat from the fascination with root could really be - radical. U ovom prilogu autor sagledava i analizira kakvu ulogu igra metafora 'korena', kao i citav onaj diskurzivni sklop koji se za nju veze - 'ukorenjenost', 'iskorenjenost' i tako dalje - te kako funkcionisu botanicke analogije uopste u modernoj politickoj teoriji. Ideoloska podvajanja se iz ovog aspekta prikazuju kao u jednakoj meri, samo na razlicite nacine, fiksirana za predstavu korena ljudske egzistencije ili dobro uredjenog drustva - i odgovarajucu sliku rascvetalog drveta ukoliko je izniklo na tim osnovama - u cijem su povlascenom posedu i iz kojeg crpu pravo i na 'radikalno' postupanje. Razlika, pak, pocinje tek tamo gde jedni zagovaraju bezuslovno negovanje datog korena a drugi preku neophodnost njegovog zamenjivanja novim. U zakljucku rada se sugerise da bi napustanje floralnih metafora moglo ne samo da otvori prostor za razlozan disput o pitanjima na koja se mislilo da one pruzaju odgovore, nego i da bi tek takvo odstupanje od fascinacije korenom u savremenosti bilo zaista - korenito.