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the law as well as creating public enemies. The enemies of present Polish government
are countless  the liberals, the former communists, the intellectuals, the socialist lobby
in the European Parliament and even the representatives of the lawyer s corporation.
The opinions about this groups can be associated with the reflections of Suzanne
Sontag (1978) about cancer as an invasion of alien beings. The period after 1989 is
judged as the time of anarchy and oligarchy. I would like to quote the words of the
present PM Jarosław Kaczyński from his party convention in 2003.  The present form
of our state could not and can not play a positive role in a process of nation building.
Instead it petrifies the status quo, in which weakness and constant parceling out the
state structures are the guarantees of it s stability. This system in an excellent way
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unites the lack of justice with lack of any ideals, what also means serious limitation of
altruistic motivation in social life. The power of this system is huge. The disintegration
affects the whole nation, as well as smaller communities, it is omnipotent6 .. Also the
idea of civic society is being questioned. To quote the PM again  this idea is completely
empty, and it was invented by so  called authorities who are disinclined to the state
and would like to prevent the political awakening of our country (Michalski, 2006: 26)..
I would like to pay attention also to such paradoxes of a present government s
discourse:
- promotion of the government as the successor of the conservative values when at the
same time modern history of Poland is considered as a run of misfortune. I would like
to remind that the perception of the left  wing democratic opposition before 1989 as a
result of an internal conflict in the communist party. Such radical views are unfamiliar to
both American and European conservatism. They are rather not far from the heritage of
so  called integral traditionalism, whose the most popular representative was an
Italian thinker Julius Evola, known as the  right  wing Marcuse . The essence of his
thoughts is a deep anthropologic pessimism (Mikołejko, 1998).. As a consequence, the
political myths of the right seem to be more prospective than retrospective. The political
thought of the right is becoming more constructivist than the ideas of the left, which will
sound funny if Friedrich von Hayek could hear it. It is important to remind that also the
tradition of Polish conservatism, that was shaped in the XIX century was marked by
respect to any law, and even loyalistic to the occupying countries. The perception of
national history constructed by this group is very critical, although it is not based upon
emotions but upon intellectual reflection., especially the idea of national uprising has
being criticized7. The lost of sovereignty by the Polish state was treated as the result of
mistake in the internal policy, not the aggression of the foreign countries. The  political
romanticism which can be observed in the activity of the present government , was
rather the distinguishing feature of the post-socialist political group that during and after
World War I led by Józef Piłsudski. After the coup de etat in May 1926 this group
became more authoritarian, but also very pragmatic or even cynic. I would like to
illustrate this thesis by an example of the magazine called  The imperative of the
moment ( Nakazy Chwili ). It was established in the early 30 s by the group of the
6
J. Kaczyński (2003: 6). In my opinion the idea of the evil System can be psychologically explained. Such perception
of politics was typical for the average people before 1989. The members of opposition groups who had an occasion to
negotiate or discuss any issue with the representatives of the communist elites used to see them more as individuals,
people with their own responsibility. The members of the present government usually had very seldom contacts of
such kind and as a consequence their vision of social life is less sophisticated. See more: Kowalski (1990).
7
See more: A. Bocheński (1996); K. Wandowicz (2000).
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intellectuals who supported government, t to play the role of think  tank. The
government however was not interested in the theoretical reflections and even ordered
to close the magazine8. Here I see the analogy with the condition of the present Polish
elites. The lack of political wheel to sharpen the abortion law inside the structures of
Law and Justice shows the developing pragmatization of it s agenda. The group of the
Catholic integrists who have left the party after an ideological conflict probably will not
play an important role at the political scene.
- The issues which were included by Claus Offe into the  sphere of the non  [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]