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Trilarion: snip ... the official leader of PiS, Beata Szydło, is not identical with the mastermind behind it, Jarosław Kaczyński, and you think that his is easy enough for the voter to look through, ...

Is law and justice in Poland the end of liberal attitudes? Will Poland follow the way of Hungary? Will division of powers be ended, media be suppressed? ... Will Polands economy grow at minor expenses here and there?

snip
More serious answer now Trilarion. :)

First, as usual nice to see your good humored curiosity about serious stuff. Always good to understand and know your neighbors right?

I won't speculate a lot on future, just want to comment what I left quoted from the bottom. I already mentioned little will change, PiS is rather a conservative party, and economically I expect very little will actually change other than posturing. As for deeper political changes, as mentioned they don't have enough power for constitutional changes and rearranging power, despite also holding the presidency.

The end of liberal attitudes now... well I expect conservative attitudes will be empowered, but the country was already divided in those regards - mainly a generational thing I think, because consider '89 was less than 30 years ago so another 30 years will make a huge difference. Anyway obviously some rather extremist voices will feel encouraged, but the majority of PiS voters are just traditional catholics of some sort - so abortion and homosexuality will be the hot button topics.

As to the Hungarian path, that requires expanding on. In some ways the Hungarian nationalist path will be pursued, and the fact that former PO PM Tusk is in the EU leadership is going to facilitate anti-EU rhetoric to no end, as well some distancing from German positions is likely to continue. Notice I said continue, because despite the PO having had a conciliatory and friendly approach to Polish-German relations they were always the minority in that regard. Distrust of Germany runs very deep in Poland, despite the economic affluence having camouflaged that.

So in those aspects you could say PiS will follow Orban, but really it isn't following, it's convergence and Orban deserves zero credit for it. Anti-EU, anti immigration, nationalist voices are everywhere in Europe and gaining strength, from France to Finland and the UK to Greece. As for the Hungarian positions of friendliness to Russia, which might have been far from your mind, if anything PiS will consciously distance themselves from Orban in those regards.

Finally... Kaczynski. Well, I am curious about foreign press treatment because calling him a mastermind and implying the polish population has been fooled somehow or is blinded is... odd certainly, and bordering on misrepresentation. The kind of elitism that only helps reinforce the populist streak of PiS voter appeal. Now I don't like the guy, but he's at least as much a clown as a mastermind. A kind of true believer of sorts which therefore is more analogous to Lenin than to Stalin - and this is a point that I'd make forcefully to actual Poles so they keep a close eye on whoever is coming behind Kaczynski, because there the real danger lies.

I'll leave it there but happy to talk more if you want further elaboration.
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Emob78: Find one. If one is not available, make one. If oppressed from making one, force one. Improvise. Adapt. Overcome.
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jamyskis: Theoretically, slaves have the same "alternatives" open to them. You have a very, very naive perspective that's more grounded in fringe political theory than actual reality.
Determinism vs free will. Interesting debate topic. Much prefer the philosophy to the staunch passion of politics. Politics gets people wearing Kevlar and lobbing grenades at one another for the 'greater good,'. Or was that never a goal of slave revolts? The underclass usually always becomes the overclass once revolution succeeds. Revolution becomes repetition. I've read that script before.

The Romans learned one lesson very well... slaves don't pay taxes. Profiteering through liberation theology. What better way to enslave man then to convince him that he is free?
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KasperHviid: When people pull that argument ... comparing the current state of affairs to the worst nightmare imaginable, and concluding that things ain't that bad ... then thing truly are going down the drain.
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JudasIscariot: Well, I remember when under communism one US dollar was equal to 10,000 Polish Zloty (before the redenomination took place) and the economy was experiencing severe inflation to the point that 1,000 Polish Zloty couldn't even buy a packet of gum 6 months down the road.

Now, we don't have rampant inflation along with an oppressive regime that included secret police that would "disappear" people and people are enjoying a lot of the creature comforts that you'd see in most Western countries. So like I said, we'll be fine, we've survived worse :)
This is way irritating, but I kinda get your point. An optimistic look at things never hurts.
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JudasIscariot: Well, I remember when under communism one US dollar was equal to 10,000 Polish Zloty (before the redenomination took place) and the economy was experiencing severe inflation to the point that 1,000 Polish Zloty couldn't even buy a packet of gum 6 months down the road.

Now, we don't have rampant inflation along with an oppressive regime that included secret police that would "disappear" people and people are enjoying a lot of the creature comforts that you'd see in most Western countries. So like I said, we'll be fine, we've survived worse :)
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KasperHviid: This is way irritating, but I kinda get your point. An optimistic look at things never hurts.
I'm sorry but I don't understand why it's irritating?

Look, I've lived through the tail end of Poland's communism years, visited the country when it had some serious inflation due to the old order crumbling (would you like to buy a chess set for 6 BILLION Polish Zloty? yes, this was a real price before the redenomination), and I live in the country now where a person no longer needs to go through all kinds of hoops just to put food on the table.

So, again, why the irritation when I've seen this country pull through a crap situation (communism then hyperinflation afterwards) with my own eyes?
Post edited October 27, 2015 by JudasIscariot
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I've read quite a deal of historical stuff, and I came to the conclusion that the problems in the so-called communist bloc were not from any kind of structural problem with the economic system but simply because one side had less resources and wealth than the other after WWII. The USSR came out of WWII barely alive, losing approx 20 million of it's people and countless towns and cities in ruins. On the other hand the US came out of the war in massive prosperity, having barely lost any of it's population and the war never having touched their homeland. It had the resources to start the Marshall Plan, while the USSR had barely anything to spend on itself, let alone the Eastern European states it was in occupation of.

It's not surprising that exhaustive process of rebuilding after WWII, alongside the fact that the Cold War started at the same time and required incredible military spending (including a nuclear program) to keep up with the West, caused

Literally every country that had a socialist system had zero resources when it started, in China the Civil War and the war with Japan ruined the country by the time the communists assumed power. Same thing with Russia and the USSR, they had a Civil War and World War I.
Post edited October 27, 2015 by Crosmando
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Elmofongo: Three Partitions?
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JudasIscariot: It's a wikipedia article but it should be a decent starting point if you're interested in learning more:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partitions_of_Poland
Ahem, ahem :P

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scramble_for_Africa
Post edited October 27, 2015 by vicklemos
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JudasIscariot: It's a wikipedia article but it should be a decent starting point if you're interested in learning more:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partitions_of_Poland
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vicklemos: Ahem, ahem :P

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scramble_for_Africa
Oh I think we just got done with the "Fourth Partition" around that time so we were too busy being scrambled ourselves at the time :)
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R8V9F5A2: ...
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bykowsky: Polish nationalist aren't racist or facist. They are right-winged (well... they call it "third way"), catholic-democrats like Dmowski. People need to understand that nationalists don't want to destroy other countries (they even meet each other on festivals and other meetings) or kill innocent people like Hitler did. Unfortunelty there is alot of dumb skinheads (skullheads?) who destroy the good name of the movement.

White-nationalist parties are popular because of radical left-winged propaganda that says muslims and black people are discriminated by white people, because they exist.
Yes, being conservative or right-wing is not the same thing as being a racist, you can be a nationalist and not wish harm, death and destruction on all other people.

When Europeans visit other countries like Thailand they don't want to see McDonalds and Wallmart stores on every corner, they want to see and experience traditional Thailand. In this case nationalism in regards to Thailand is a positive thing, but why should nationalism become a negative thing once they return to their home countries ?!.

In the West its only a hate crime if white people do the harm, never when its the other way around.
It is this discrepancy in logic that many people don't like today.
Simply because X is done towards a majority group does not make it less of a hate crime.
It should be valued and judged equally.
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Crosmando: Literally slaves.
People sayin' that nowadays there are slaves in here and there, slavish 9 to 5 bullcrap, slave this and that... these folks don't really know what slavery was all about. China is filled with "modern day slaves" and etc... tsc tsc. Nonsense.
I come from a terrible country who was doomed from its conception. Both colonial "invaders" and nowadays dictators/devilish companies/congolese - and african- elites and some big banks helped the once great DRC turn into the seventh circle of Dante's Inferno.

I mean, we'll never know what real slavery was, like the belgian colonial atrocities in Leopold's Congo, for instance. Don't worry modern belgians, I mean colonial belgians :)
By far, the most disgusting deal in the past two centuries. And no one really cares. Heck, not even 1 million brutally murdered in Rwanda shook the 90s, why would the DRC do any less?

Slavery (to say the least): extinguishing your culture and replacing it for something quite alien, I'd say/murdering your family in front of you/cuttin' people's hands in pieces (just for "fun")/whipping your back for hours, even crucifixion, impalation... two sided coins, yep, but nonetheless terrifying.
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bykowsky:
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R8V9F5A2: When Europeans visit other countries like Thailand they don't want to see McDonalds and Wallmart stores on every corner,
Totally OT (sorry) but Americans do.
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Emob78: Find one. If one is not available, make one. If oppressed from making one, force one. Improvise. Adapt. Overcome.
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Crosmando: Individualist bullshit. The vast majority of humanity under your beloved capitalist system (that is, the third world) have zero chance of getting out of poverty. If capitalism is such a great system, then why hasn't it delivered all of humanity (or at least most of it) out of poverty?
Human nature.
Simple as that my young idealist Gog-er
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JudasIscariot: Oh I think we just got done with the "Fourth Partition" around that time so we were too busy being scrambled ourselves at the time :)
:(
Know that (and I mean it) your post made me cry a little on the inside.
Communism never again!
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R8V9F5A2: Nationalism does not equal racism and bigotry, which much of popular media seems to think.
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jamyskis: Racism and bigotry is derived from the delusional sense that one's own nation, race or culture is superior, so yes, Nationalism goes hand in hand with racism and bigotry. I think you're confusing patriotism with Nationalism, which is often referred to as "false patriotism" or "negative patriotism".
There are different interpretations of nationalism.
I follow this particular dictionary definition:[url=]http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/nationalism[/url]
This definition basically says that you put your own country's needs before that of others.

Merriam-Webster 's definition is similar to your definition: [url=]http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/nationalism[/url]
However that is not the definition I am using.

The definition I'm using suits the term Patriotism as well, since one of the definitions of Patriotism is 'the devotion and support of your own country'... i.e. something that is relative.

Also, left-wing media has its own very extreme definition of nationalism. When many people think of nationalism today it is this particular definition they are thinking about.
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JudasIscariot: Oh I think we just got done with the "Fourth Partition" around that time so we were too busy being scrambled ourselves at the time :)
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vicklemos: :(
Know that (and I mean it) your post made me cry a little on the inside.
Communism never again!
You said it bro!

Also I guess in Congo you don't actually have free market, you have a weird mix of controlled state capitalism, plutocracy and gung-ho "cowboy capitalism"??? But it's marketed as free?
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JudasIscariot: Oh I think we just got done with the "Fourth Partition" around that time so we were too busy being scrambled ourselves at the time :)
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vicklemos: :(
Know that (and I mean it) your post made me cry a little on the inside.
Communism never again!
Lolwut, the USSR gave land to Poland after WWII, where do you think Prussia went?