Jarosław Kuisz: Will the dreams of liberal democracy finally dissipate?
After the presidential election, I remembered a film about noble politics – George Clooney’s “Good Night and Good Luck.” The work from two decades ago is filled with idealism from the opening to the ending. The vile senator Joseph McCarthy is defeated in a clash with journalism. The meticulous disclosure of scandals makes sense. Pathos is not funny.
Polish polarization turns 20. Fights were there from the beginning fratricidalI almost burst into tears. And I barely pulled myself together. The nostalgia hit hard. Then, happily, I realized that the black-and-white film is as old as Nasza Kochana Polarizacja. Ah, so those were already the “good old days”! My soul immediately felt lighter. In 2005, the PO-PiS orphans, like the director overseas, still thought for a long time that it was possible to live in fiction. Meanwhile, it was precisely then that we found ourselves in the Polish future . .
Post-communism died. The quarrel between two politicians set the course for the country for the next 20 years. The fighting was fratricidal from the beginning, which is where the sources of today's cruelty should be sought. After all, it was about overcoming the bonds of blood, culture and religion, and finally a common language. In order to divide into antagonistic parties in democracy, they climbed to successive levels of ruthlessness.
The smallest differences were exaggerated to excess. Until finally exaggeration became the rule. And the democratic need for differences of opinion simply ceased to be distinguished from hatred. Many families quarreled. Divided.
And here you go, Poland – like one apple – after the vote lies split almost perfectly in two. Resentful bile flows out of it.
Well, the world of old politics turns out to be a longing for a certain kind of hypocrisy. Nothing more. And yet, sometimes it was accompanied by a certain public self-restraint in actions and words. Dreams of a better world – just like our children – help to organize behavior. To stand on a vertical.
Currently, the old ideals of 1989 have been replaced by the desire to crawl across the floor for our loved ones. We are interested in public humiliation of our loved ones, because after all, it is our compatriots that we are concerned about. It is possible that one day the dreams of liberal democracy will finally fade away.
And then films like "Good Night and Good Luck" will cease to be even nostalgic. Their naivety will not touch anyone's heart. They will simply become deadly boring. Something like - with all proportions maintained - works of socialist realism.
RP
