Things disintegrated in the Balkans not because of the collapse of Communism there but because of the imposition of it. Communism ultimately must destroy all normal social institutions because they are incompatible with it. Part of this is the pointing at the West and saying “Bad! Bad!” Okay, so if the West is bad then all parts of it must be bad and that includes that Western idea of not stealing your next door neighbor’s chickens.

Then, the collapse of Communism led to no standards at all. If everything you have been told is now wrong then that includes the old Yugoslavian idea of not shooting your next door neighbor and taking his chickens.