Or maybe I’ve simply had enough of this Polish-Polish war and would like to experience defeat. Yes. PiS’s victory in the election is, politically, my defeat. A negation of my left-leaning views, my brave voting for the Civic Platform for years, and my support for a modern society without assigning women and men worn-out roles that suffocate rather than help them develop.
Neither I nor those I supported managed to explain to most Poles that our benefits were also theirs. We were perceived as the sole beneficiaries of globalization, joining the European Union, capitalism, and the social, economic and cultural changes that followed. And we lost. Yet we are drawing no conclusions; instead, we are stubbornly pressing on and fighting, this time in the name of democracy.
And when I look at what is happening in Parliament and outside it, I see that this is not about democracy at all. It is solely and exclusively about power. And I’ve had enough.
When the abortion law was being tightened, I still felt it was worth joining the protest. But I will not fight for media freedom. Why? Because the media will manage, because they have always been able to put effective pressure on every politician, whether liberal or conservative. Politicians will not defeat the media. They will merely dance some wild polka together, like in Huntington’s chorea: a combination of uncoordinated limb movements, mood changes and declining cognitive abilities.
I’m no longer dancing. I’m not attending rallies, liking posts or watching more footage recorded on mobile phones of staircases where female MPs’ phones come to rest. I want to make use of defeat and look at the winners. Give them a chance. Without sympathy for their views, accepting them but not loving them. I do not support their vision of Poland, but I do not want to obstruct its implementation. They will not turn back the Vistula with a stick, but perhaps they will soothe this enormous part of society that wants this so badly: justice for itself and laws for itself. Maybe this is the only way to bring us together as one nation?