simpleminded comparisons
“Persevering”, my coworker once described me. “Dogged” and “obsessive” I might add.
The post is again about Poland and what quickly becomes patent, my unresolved issues with the country of my birth. In the past year I have incited a few electronic discussions with my extended family on the topic of politics and the strong nationalistic, religious and conservative character of Poland in its current incarnation. On my recent visit we kept at it in person. Pointing out the negatives of laisse-faire market liberalism and the dangers inherent in strong nationalist and religious sentiments, I caught myself basing all my arguments on my daily living experience and current events in the United States. Both Poland and the USA are governed by right wing conservative parties, both are overwhelmingly Christian. It was only too inviting and too easy to make simpleminded comparisons.
I scoured Warsaw bookstores looking for an authentic overview of the most recent polish political history. I was searching for a local voice and a local perspective. For the most part however, I would find very little of interest, only the usual all too common display of John Paul II anthology and a litany of polish WWII victimhood. Ultimately, in a downtown Warsaw bookstore (hosting a gun shop! [my "liberal/latte sipping/San Francisco intellectual" bias bobs up in acknowledgment that Walmart and guns is lamentable but expected, yet a combination of bookstore and guns seems shockingly denatured]) I reached out for a book by David Ost.
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It is now a few months since I paused that last thought, Poland kicked the ultra right wing coalition and elected a pro market government which differs from its predecessor by a hair, mainly in the international pro-European stance - a welcome change. I have since finished reading The Defeat of Solidarity . The irony of reading a book in Polish translation about the socio-economical and political processes in Poland written in English by an American professor of political science, is noteworthy. I suspect that the reason for my inability to find a Polish authored analysis of the transition from a planned market to a free market economy and its effects on the Polish society is due to the lack of distance and grand perspective, which David Ost possessed by virtue of simply being an outsider.
The book is very informative. Its most captivating point in my opinion is the attempt to explain how the hardships of economic reforms and the inability of political leadership to keep its electorate, ultimately resulted in increased support for extreme right-wing ideas. It may seem like an unfortunate turn of events where the working classes shunned and dismissed by their elected leaders found others, who happened to espouse nationalist and catholic ideologies and who were willing to listen to their grievances and take on their causes all of course, in the self serving pursuit of rising to power. The truth of the matter is however that Poland always has been a tradition bound conservative society; nationalist, since its borders were constantly threatened by invading neighbors ever since its birth as a country in the 10th century, and fervently catholic, ever more so, since religion was denounced by the communist regime. The path that David Ost is tracing however fascinating, is rather a short one. It takes a religious society with strong national identity to one that is inclined to emphasize those aspects as unique attributes.
My hesitance for drawing too literal of a parallel between Poland and America, stems from uncertainty as to whether the same basic list of ingredients will produce the same exact cake. In other words, whether liberal market, social conservatism and prominent religion will result in a society of marked contrasts between rich and poor, little or no social safety nets or benefits, discrimination towards minorities on the basis of alternative sexual orientation, reactionary and defensive stance in respect to the rest of the world, dated and dangerous attitudes towards women and reproductive rights, inclination to limit or outwardly suppress free speech in attempts to appease religious sensibilities, just to name a few.
Common sense dictates that I am both right and wrong in tracing the similarities between the two countries as predictors of Poland’s ultimate post transitional outcome. Of course, there is the process. Skilled cooks can work marvels with just potatoes, peas and carrots. At the same time, their creation has zero chances of turning out to be a lemon merengue pie.