Sunday 02.04. at the judaic Cemetery in Warsaw at 1 p.m. we will say goodbye to our Friend, for years a very crucial and active associate of the Forum of the Long Table, prof. Paweł Spiewak.
February 18, 2023 Paul e - mailed me his fresh text with this request: “Pawle, I have written a fewer paged text, the title explains everything, I want your opinion. It's like you can compose what you think in politics and reading. My gratitude will be immeasurable. Heartfelt, Paul”
The text in the first version was entitled “Disappointment”. I replied: “I share your opinions and views, and nothing truly leads me to argue with what you wrote. The value of the text is that you have been able to compose about the most crucial matters easy and reliably and at the same time comparatively briefly and succinctly defining the most crucial problems and naming them by name. It's worth sharing.
At 1 point I thought something was wrong. By listing the ruined sectors of the state you wrote on page 6 that "The most serious crisis has affected the justice system". I do not know if this is the "most serious" – your full text shows that they are more serious...systemic. He's definitely 1 of many serious... By the way, I thought to myself that I was denying, not writing and not judging the unimaginable scandalous actions of the organization state and political authorities during the pandemic, which cost over 200,000 excess deaths. Many of them could be avoided... about the times of pandemic in this paragraph I would write.
And possibly another one. Composingly, so at the end of the text, I would consider going back to, for example, the past of your stay in Italy on Lake Como with any general reflection on the challenges that are facing modern democratic systems – the denial of the “courses” you have experienced.
So much for fast reading. Very good text!!! Thank you! Paul’
Later, in telephone conversations, we agreed that it was essential that this text be published after the amendments. Andrzej Machowski and Piotr Pytlakowski participated in the work on his editorial board. Paul got acquainted with the text published in “Politics” (28.03.) last Wednesday, in the hospital, in the ICU. due to the fact that he always made very advanced demands for himself, he commented on it in his own way... let's say it was besides shallow, that it was not adequate to communicate, but I guess in those days, he was very far distant from the problems he was dealing with before going to the hospital.
Why am I writing about this today? Paul's text in a version published and even more in this first one, without abbreviations, seemed to us a synthesis, a summary of the Forum's meetings that lasted since 2016; discussions on politics and the country, work on detailed programmes and issues. It corresponds to the temperature of encounters and represents after Paul's sudden, unexpected death (lastly he was of excellent spiritual and intellectual condition and of paradox, physical) a kind of political will that he left to us and very important, without expecting death, at the end of his days.
You have now read my supplement (01.04.) of the text with Paul's article, which I wrote on Wednesday, 29.04. Thursday night, we heard about his death.
29.03.2023. Paul the vocalist – Disappointment
In the last "Politics" (28.03.), in the national department, the text by Prof. Paweł Spiewak was published about a period ago. I witnessed his work on him. Paul was of large importance to him. It was initially titled “Disappointment”. It was a small more extensive, more individual and detailed, with examples and personalities. I'm cheating on this kitchen due to the fact that it matters. Many of us have a large sense of disappointment, sadness, or bitterness, sometimes going into a state of depression, due to the fact that in front of us there are very bad scenarios, they contact us personally and we feel vulnerable, in a situation without a solution. Disappointed – it is small to say.
Whatever it is, part of the blame is on us. Collectively – environmentally, professionally and politically, but besides each of us individually. Family, school, work, relationships with neighbors. any are more aware of it, any less. We were closer or further away, but we all collectively allowed our hopes from the spring of 1989 to be so grim after 30 years of activity. This was not done by any mythical “they.” We co-created it, allowed it, chose it. Paul does not compose about it, but we should be aware of it.
Of course, at this phase the planet and life do not end. The future is ahead of us and nothing has changed – it is inactive dependent on us – our thinking, work and attitude. The large value of Paul’s text is to name things by name. It moves in this sketch from individual experiences, analysis of phenomena to a real image – very crucial for our future synthesis – a description of state position and strategy dysfunction.
Feel free to read:
Paweł Spiewak – Politics from thestage. Are the parties worthless, or do we truly request them?
From politics I stayed at a distance for years, but inactive I immerse myself in it for 2 years – fortunately only 2 – sitting in a circular parliament room, and felt, due to the constant and strong air conditioning, the omnipotent cold. The cold was coming from the air vents, but besides from the company.
I was put on the side. Next to the MP from the bankers' circles, Janusz Palikot from the millionaires' ellipse and a very wealthy highland entrepreneur who moved to the governing organization and became a minister. I surely didn't belong to the millionaire class. I didn't truly know anyone, and I wasn't certain if I wanted to get to know anyone. I liked a fewer people, but nothing came out of it. However, on the first autumn journey to Lake Como to the villa of the chadeks, erstwhile the villa of Konrad Adenauer, I heard good advice from an experienced German parliamentarian: remember, there is no request to fear MPs from the opposing camp, the most dangerous are colleagues from their own club. They'll study you to their bosses and they'll be happy to harm you.
It is not worth writing about clashes at the club, there were not so many of them and usually afraid with personalities, and then the most serious was the presence of Jan Maria Rokita; nobody especially liked him, though he could be valued for his intellectual talents. He was shot to death, entrusting the function of negotiator in coalition talks with the PiS, in which the PO was not believed. He hit "burned." erstwhile Rokita was fiercely killing Olechowski, now he was a boy to beat. They did not mean the alleged culprit, but to show allegiance to the organization leader.
That's what the backstage policy looked like, and I'm not cut out for this policy. However, I can't forget how a dense network of cateramic layouts works, ambitions of local leaders, fear of a chief, and the thought of an ear. The ear and access to the ear were the key to the position. The ear should be a symbol of power. Being inside is good science, but I deficiency political aspirations and – worst of all – I did not find myself dominandi libido, that instinct of dominance and ruthlessness, needed in all organization game. I left the Sejm with a sense of disappointment with myself, what I was doing there, and even more disappointed with politicians.
Partiocracy alternatively of Democracy
The reflection of political life taught me, and it was rather early that our political strategy could be called a pariocracy for years. Partial oligarchies play a key function in the governance of most frequently the same function as the authorities over public and local administration institutions, as well as state Treasury companies (two are favourite by all governments: KGHM and Orlen). The parties effort to fill all crucial state and capital positions with their people, and a layer of fresh state owners dependent on organization leaders is born, secondary privatization of institutions takes place and billions of zlotys are wasted. The substantive criteria in the selection of staff are gradually replaced by purely political ones. This can be seen present in all areas of life, even in the State Forests which are the Lenne of Solidarne Poland.
Partiocracy usually besides means replacing the liberal-democracy strategy by majority procedures. Most people are right, even if they break the constitution or global agreements. It's called collective will or nation will. Thus each organization creates its nomenclature (as in the PZPR), and this is accompanied by an extended strategy of dependency, best known as clientelism or neofeudism (the organization lenna at the disposal of local barons). This was the case during the regulation of the SLD, so to the gigantic degree developed this model of governance in the times of the right. Institutions balancing executive power, specified as courts, prosecutors, the Central Bank, the Constitutional Court and crucial areas of private economical trade so far, partially public media, have been threatened or even destroyed. any independency towards the centre was maintained by the local government administration, although the mechanisms of organization dominance there besides became manifest. A peculiar kind of "political culture" based on organization arrangements has been created. This does not mean that there are not many interesting people in the parties, critical, capable, but their goals and loyalty are always party.
The waste of human resources has been stunning for years. The thought of experts or professionals is beyond that beautiful, but usually small of them benefit the party. The promotion among its own organization staff most frequently leads to a fall in policy quality in all dimension. This is well seen erstwhile many institutions are analysed present – from the Ministry of Education to the Ministry of abroad Affairs. There, arrogance most warmly greets incompetence. During the times of the right, this is the norm, but – I dare say – the process of stubborn state dates back to the early 1990s, and for the first time I met it in the Ministry of Education in 1993, erstwhile Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz, the later Prime Minister, co-directed it. The N.A. got a job, and non-partisans were fired. By the time Prime Minister Miller, that was the norm. The organization and public administration became one. civilian service was destroyed, and yet it was destroyed by the PiS at the beginning of its rule. The benefits of organization denominations acting as state officials have awakened and will rise the worst suspicions. Fortunately, the EU enforces certain standards of action of many offices, although this is very different. And so at the top of the competition committees is “our” man and he knows how to decently dispose money.
As I noted, the parties are reluctant to civilian society. It's like they're competing with him, but they're avoiding him, pretending that there's no specified society. In fact, the Law and Justice Society is trying to nationalize and control it by holding it on a short leash with financial means. They even set up the Institute of Freedom – this is the work of Gliński – to restrict freedom. Most independent institutions do not suffer, specified as the ZNP or independent trade unions. Even Solidarity, favoring this power, has silenced or faded and has nothing to say.
Other parties treat NGOs at a distance, a small as if they had a monopoly on cognition and did not want to share influences and benefit from the cognition of different groups, including professional organisations. It seems that their expectations and ideas unnecessarily disturb organization officers.
The parties have an oligarchical structure, leaders control communication, finances, they decide who enters the electoral lists, they set strategies for action. This must most likely be the case in many countries, although it has little and little to do with the thought of typical democracy. due to the fact that which parties do they represent, if a full of tens of thousands belong to them?
Walking to a planet of stupidity
I feel tired and, worst of all, powerless, listening to ubiquitous propaganda, due to the fact that it seems that nothing but propaganda has access to the mainstream media. Of course, I like this anti-script, but each 1 is so boring, predictable, roles are given distant and politicians, puppet actors, play their roles even without unnecessary, excessive emotions and without conviction. It's not much to live in. Even the generals whom I listened more carefully to, wanting to realize the war in Ukraine, fell into unilaterality and monotony. They study the results of the clashes and cannot say anything that exceeds the current state of conflict.
The right fundamentally supports the full episcopate. Even if they loathe it, they inactive have the same benefits, from ideological to property. The worst part is that religion has turned into an ideology of spiritual content, and in a nationalistic and traditionalist edition. This ends with the collapse of the authority of church institutions and priests. No wonder that the reaction was a time of aggressive and foolish atheism presented by alleged academic philosophers. There is besides written ideology by Leguta, Nowak, Krasnodębski, Wildstein and respective another journalists or publicists from “To the Thing” or “on the Web”. They are poisoners of Polish souls, promoting chauvinism, intolerance and simplicity not only in words but in action. They woke up and sanctioned the most primitive reflexes.
I am reasoning about my judaic colleague, a young rabbi, who was badly beaten on the streets of Wrocław, the subcutaneous anti-Semitism gained a fresh chance and freedom of action. The D.A. clears most racist cases. I am reasoning of a household of semi-Germans settled in the Krkonoše and pushed from the Polish village by native patriots. This is more than enough. It began with the feeling of immigrants and the humiliation of Syrian refugees. It's 1 of the most severe symptoms of national megalomania.
I feel powerless to hear about another scandals that no longer inspire deeper emotions. Political corruption is all-powerful. The public scene is moving distant from us. It's not even alien anymore, it's disgusting, it's discouraging, but it's empty, no that I want to admit so much. It leads to helpless irritability, creates depression. There's nothing we can do. I'm moving distant from politics or her local substitute. I see no reason to look at her, due to the fact that there's nothing out there but catties. No reflection, no thoughts, no programs.
Many publicists and politicians argue that we live in a cardboard country where the fundamental rights and interests of citizens are not guaranteed, and this concerns most education, medical care, but besides the protection of citizens' safety. The most serious crisis has affected the justice system. The writers, as part of the state's stubbornness, are trying to annex the courts, taking over the prosecution. They showed their smallness, cynicism and sense of theft on a tragic scale during the pandemic. Over 200,000 people died. This did not gotta happen with another policy-based decision-making mechanism.
I know 1 thing, neoliberalism in the local version – the ideological basis of the 3rd Republic – with its highly simplistic imagination of the world, simple individualism, reducing people's needs to an economical dimension, with religion only in the power of financial capital and material assets, has seriously threatened cultural, educational and educational areas. For years our politicians seem not to realize what education, culture and collective memory are. It saves on schools, teachers, reluctantly and scarcely finances discipline and higher education. Numbers are available in GUS statistics. It is worth seriously reading and asking yourself how subsequent generations will be prepared for life, work, creativity and civic behavior. It seems like we're slipping into a planet of stupidity, and this 1 is deadly dangerous due to the fact that it's erratic.
Borders of organization Authority
I do not know the answer to these questions from the opposition. He's not looking for advice in education environments. He despises, I believe, intellectuals, writers and scientists. I'm not just saying that. Of course, there are surviving intellectual and technological environments in us, and there are prominent, most frequently lonely writers, artists, but as I learn that the top specialist in the past of Christianity must pay for another book from the pensioner's own funds, it just takes me anger. Many writers and scientists beg for mediocre scholarships. I am furious to see how fewer serious writings remain, how many cultural institutions were taken over by the officers of power – from the judaic Historical Institute to Zachęta. I am disappointed by the Polish democratic culture, in which authoritarian and non-democratic institutions play a leading role: parties and the Catholic Church. Both treat citizens with a clear sense of superiority, just instructing.
The question, of course, arises whether the fresh government after the elections, aware of the various forms of takeover of state institutions by political formations, will someway arrange relations between parties-public administration, parties-positions in companies of the Treasury. I've never heard of it. Any statements of opposition of a programme nature are alternatively vague and general. Nothing is said about the Partiocracy, and even eliminates those who are reluctant to dominate organization oligarchy. Oligarchy of powerful, unfettered power, but de facto beyond all social control. There is no request to question the party's function in politics. All we request to do is urgently point out the limits of their power.
***
Paul the Singer (born 1951) – an thought historian, sociologist, habilitated doctor of humanities and associate prof. of the University of Warsaw. Co-founder of the underground monthly “Res Publica”. Multiannual Head of the Social thought past Department at the Institute of Sociology at the University of Warsaw. In 2005–07, associate of Parliament (candidate as non-partisan from the PO list). Between 2011 and 2020, manager of the judaic Historical Institute. associate of the Social College at the POLIN Museum, writer and author of books.
Policy 14.2023 (3408) of 28.03.2023; View and View; p. 70
Original title: ‘Parties not worth much’
Photo: photograph by Maciej Zienkiewicz
