Complaining about modernity – always worse than the "golden times" of our youth – is most likely an eternal phenomenon. The eyes of the soul see old Plato spit on the customs of the 4th century BC and keep that in the 5th century BC everything was better, wiser, braver, more dynamic and sensible. Of course, the aversion to modern times depends on age (he grows with the thicket of grey on his head), and the object of worship is different depending on PESEL. While I can carry them to the pedestal of the 1990s, many others who complain about the present planet will find them equally horrible, and the pedestal will be the 1960s, for example.
But it's an illusion. The planet is mostly getting better and our nostalgias are simply due to longing for times erstwhile dating and blood counts were the other frequency in our agenda today. But that doesn't mean that everything gets better than it utilized to. There are, of course, exceptions and a handicap to our public debate by formatting it through algorithms and the general logic of social media. Closed in comfortable net bubbles, we lose the ability to communicate our views to people about the other beliefs, and all the more we get free of the habit of consuming their feedback messages. Who likes to go beyond their comfort zone? Who doesn't like to drive an air-conditioned car in company with the radio Alice in Chains, alternatively of a tram in the company of a guy who last watched a shower 5 days ago (well, too the people in the biggest crisis of activism, of course, they don't prefer)?
The Karpacz economical Forum is 1 of the last places in Poland to go outside the bubble. It is here that you can perceive to the future candidate for president of the Republic of Poland, Karol Nawrocki, talks about the top heroes from the Carpathian region (i.e. Jan Pawle II), in front of you he listens to this Marshal Kuchciński, and respective places next to you even Antoni Macierewicz. Here you can give Richard Czarnecki a place in line for cold snacks with a grin on your mouth, knowing that he may shortly gotta change the conditions of sitting.
It is here on a discussion panel with your participation, on a completely scandalous subject of the future of liberals, that a PiS MP may come and perceive to you, who will then, in the spheres, commend and say that liberalism and conservatism are fundamentally almost the same. If it wasn't for the gay thing... Well, due to the fact that your request for matrimony is unacceptable to everyone. There is then an interesting conversation in which it turns out that we are actually close to the Conservatives, as from the point of view of the MP the main problem with LGBT rights is vocabulary. "Marriage" turns out to be reserved for consecutive couples mainly for language, not moral reasons. By the way of an agreement, is the Dictionary of Polish in place of the Old Testament Bible? Actually, great.
But then this analogy... “Marriage” means what it means and nothing else, as does the word “supplier”. Sausages are sausages, and not sausages simply cannot be sausages. So you spoil this analogy with a brief motion, indicating that from sausage, kabanosa, to Polish, Kraków and Podwawelska (or abroad raids in the kind of chorizo or Frankfurtfurterka) – sausages are very different, ergos can be different and marriages.
When you stand there and wonder if the callback of sausage in the discussion has appeared as a Freudian factor, you find that people with this criticism of modern times are truly exaggerating. Well, it's good to get out of the bubble, but it's good to be back with it after a while.
