Nostalgia is simply a powerful weapon. Dreams of old power, stability, or glory are a large motor for action. It can besides lead to a dangerous trap, and an perfect example is the monarchist environment in Poland.

The monarchist movement in Poland and its argument

An alternate to lame Polish democracy is being sought by a mass of environments. any of them look into the ancient past, offering an alternate in the form of restoring the monarchy system. At the same time, they must be acknowledged that the list of their arguments is very extensive. Full of secular, religious, political, and economical arguments, which depend, of course, on the movement of the kind of monarchy represented by a given division. Both supporters of the typical parliamentary monarchy of the West present and the erstwhile model of the absolute monarchy, close to the 18th century Kingdom of France, can be met.

They point, among another things, to greater stableness of monarchic governments, rich constitutional traditions and aesthetic ceremonialism. There are besides a number of economical arguments showing the possible proceeds from tourism.

So where is the problem? Above all, today's Polish monarchs deficiency a coherent imagination to introduce the dream form of government. A change in the system, even the smallest, requires titanium effort, tons of planning and a suitable economical situation. no of these things are happening today. There is besides a deficiency of key social support in today's society, which, however, does not seem to be of peculiar interest to the elite, which later.

Let us callback that in the present society access to information is practically a formality. Even if a circumstantial society is passive, it is inactive considered sovereign. Taking this right would require the consent of the people, and today's monarchs do not want to work on it. Between dreams, any effort to bring about “controvolution” by armed methods or abrupt (proverbal of course) descent from Heaven “a man of providence” that will remove this nasty democracy and introduce to the throne of Wettin, Habsburg or...

Yeah, who? The question “Who is to be king?” mostly closes all discussions. It is amusing to draw out a proposal from 1 of the erstwhile families of Europe, as it does not warrant the establishment of the monarchist's desired conservative order. The argument about appropriate education and perfect preparation in childhood is besides missing the reality. Finally, the king of Spain from 1975 to 2014 Juan Carlos was prepared to regulation according to the spirit of General Francisco Franco's worldview, and yet he proved to be 1 of the main architects of the dismantling of the Frankist system. Declaring as Catholic King of the Belgians Baldwin I, reigning between 1951 and 1993 washed his hands from the signing of the law guaranteeing abortion, washing his hands by giving up power for 1 day.

There is no warrant that the crowned Polish monarch would not begin to represent the liberal or left-wing worldview, or would not succumb to the force of society. Attempting to introduce an absolute monarchy in the pre-revolutionary kind of France is simply a fantasy. The only realistic way to keep specified order would be through brutal tyranny, which would not have much to do with the Catholic movement declared by most. It would turn the vast majority of society against the state, which would become a pariah internationally and an interior monster. An example of absolute Saudi Arabia, frequently cited as a counterargument for global isolation is rather unfortunate. Saudi Arabia yet has gigantic reserves of strategical oil, and it is they that motivate the world's countries to keep relations with it. Poland does not have this.

Is trying to make your own fantasies worth it?

Perhaps then the ceremonial-representative king who reigns, but does not rule, as in Britain? This model of the monarchy is the most common economical argument. The fresh Polish monarchy would become a tourist hit, which would powerfully strengthen the state budget and advance the country internationally.

However, the problem of the British model is its endemicity. The British monarch is simply a planet celebrity mainly due to the fact that in that country it is an institution with gigantic traditions, which has existed continuously since the 17th century and this is 1 of the main reasons for its success. A large part of the state budget is being taken to the glendor of the ruler, but monarchs frequently overlook the existing hidden costs, specified as protection.

Would Poland truly call this? Is this experimentation truly worth it?

I frequently mention in this text an argument referring to faith, due to the fact that modern Polish monarchs declare almost entirely attachment to the thought of a Catholic monarchy. It is besides comic to invoke the Scriptures and the bold thesis that Jesus Christ himself should be a monarch, and that his Kingdom is built hierarchically.

It is true, but the Lord besides stated in the Gospel of St John that "My kingdom is not this world." Any effort to build a “paradise on the ground” was at best a fiasco and at worst a tragedy. Similarly, it is grotesque to bid on what ideology Jesus Christ would say. Quoting the words of Joachim Walasz from his article “De eccelsia militiante (About the Church Fighting)”:

The Church is neither organization nor political direction, and Jesus had no organization card. (...) The cross of the Lord cannot become a tribal totem or a organization logo due to the fact that it would be a profanation. The Kingdom of Christ is not of this world, so the systems are secondary.

This is consistent with the position of the Church, which in its teaching does not indicate the only rightness of the monarchy system.

Ruining the Monarchist Movement and a Lesson From It

The monarchist movement in Poland is closed in a intellectual basement. On the 1 hand, average people hold the door to it, for which the concept of the Polish king is fantasy and anachronism. What is absurd, however, on the another hand the door is barricaded by the monarchs themselves.

In his attachment to his own hyperidealistic imagination of a perfect monarchy, in which a good Catholic king administers a devout people with the aid of right and good aristocracy escapes their reality. Historical monarchs, apart from the fewer rulers never even stood alongside this ideal, and especially those absolute of the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries.

And even if they were standing, there's another brutal truth. The Monarchical Social Order stood on foundations that are long gone. It stood on cultural and social codes that disappeared and on economical mechanisms that had become obsolete. Any effort to renew them will be a façade which at the minute of the disappearance of its main substructure. As Franco's dictatorship after the General's death, it simply collapses and becomes a frightening establishment of the spectrum.

In fact, today’s monarchs are fantasies who dream of a perfect planet of subjects and good kings. They are attracted by their beautiful aesthetics, sophisticated ritualism and pseudo-elitism of the birth of erstwhile higher classes. It's like a fairy tale where they like to dig in due to the fact that it scares their anti-Catholicism and the corruption of today's world. Debates to reconstruct noble titles and to whom they are due and eternal quarrels about whether Wettin, Habsburg or Bourbon are nothing but escapism would be better on the Polish throne. A deluded yearning for a planet that never existed.

The Polish right, nevertheless successful, must offer fresh solutions. It must not forget its tradition and its perfect roots, but it must be modern. The deficiency of this modernity in action and in reasoning pushed it to the outskirts of public debate, from which it slow tries to recover. Dreams about “Great Poland from sea to sea” where all citizen is simply a nationalist or about medieval monarchy present let us leave people who do not want to change anything in their lives.

To win, we gotta act.

The Kazus of the monarchist movement is besides a valuable lesson for the Polish national movement. Let us not be passive epigons who, in consequence to the challenges of modernity, copy patterns from the past and offer nothing creative. Let us consider the writings of the erstwhile authors as an asset from which we can draw and, more importantly, expand. Let us not be afraid to criticize things and reject those things that have long lost track.

Otherwise, we'll be standing right next to the forest-grandfather's basement, the Endek cellar, and young fans of crowned heads.