Since the deficiency of fish is referred to as a fishless fish, the deficiency of reasoning can be described as a “nonthinking” neologism.
In this thoughtlessness and complete extermination from all, even simple reflection, Polish public life has been consistently and to the ground for decades. For the sake of justice—with fewer exceptions, which, however, do not make a peculiar spring. Mindless is manifested on many levels. First of all, it results in a complete deficiency of a coherent plan, a concept of collective life organisations in the country and conducive to achieving the objectives of national abroad policy.
Instead, we have a non-reflective repetition of slogans and narratives created outside our borders, in an highly simplified, sometimes vulgarized and shrewd version. individual will say that only intellectuals from the powers, co-responsible for formulating programs and visions, can afford to reflect on global policy and global relations. George Friedman in the United States, Yan Xuetong in China or Alexander Dugin, with whom we post an interview in this issue – in Russia. However, that is not true: even in medium-sized and even smaller countries, we are faced with revived intellectual activity, frequently heated disputes about the right choice of direction of abroad policy. Hungarians, Slovaks, Czechs and another tiny nations in our part of Europe make their reflection on the global environment and the right and corresponding behaviour.
On Polish barren land there is thoughtlessness. It wasn't always like that. Before the war, Roman Dmowski, who combined theoretical reflections with outstanding applicable merits in the field of diplomacy, took an excellent reflection of the highest effort on topics which we would call geopolitical today. In the post-war period, despite the conditions of limited sovereignty in the field of abroad and defence policy, the head of the Polish Ministry of abroad Affairs, Adam Rapacki, appeared in Poland and in the planet with his own concepts. Of course, these 2 names do not close the rich list of those who did not shun reasoning about our country's function in global governance.
Today, we are actually dealing with chewing on another people's passwords, possibly reheating phobias and stereotypes, sometimes completely outdated, coming from the past. There are many reasons for this condition and they are hard to reduce to 1 factor. Certainly, among the leading sources of the problem are the deficiency of thorough education of subsequent generations of Polish political scientists or graduates of global relations. The complexes that make all Anglo-Saxon thought, even the most absurd, appear traditionally to be revealed on the Vistula. For respective years we have besides had an additional factor, causing geometric advancement of the mindless region – an all-encompassing censorship, seasoned from time to time with media tails, and sometimes with repressions against those who dare to think.
Hegemony of thoughtlessness in our country makes it essential to scope out to at least 3 sources to realize anything from the surrounding reality. First of all, these are native sources – a Polish thought that has developed for centuries and died rather recently. Secondly, it is the work of others, from which inspiration can be derived, without copying them. Thirdly, we have in the ranks of contemporary Polish dormitories, intellectuals and scholars who, despite highly unfavourable conditions, effort to think about global relations and abroad policy. For example, prof. Stanislaw Bielen and his de facto school of realism in global relations. It is adequate to simply advance the achievements of specified figures intensively.
The mindless region will not halt immediately. Its simplification may take years or decades. That's not very optimistic. However, a small optimism can introduce the fact that slow Poles are looking for logical, rational, reasonable explanations of an increasingly complicated world. For now, they are simply creating an island of thought in the ocean of thoughtlessness. But in the future, who knows...
Mateusz Piskorski
Think Poland, No. 23-24 (2-9.06.2024)
