Narrative invariance

My comment on the article Polish populists are rocked by liberal surge at ballot box by Maria Wilczek in The Times, 29 June 2020.


The narrative of the public life in Poland in general is presented in the Communist mode. This is essentially the narrative of self-appointed prison authorities explaining their role as guardians of dangerous prisoners.

Elections are presented as revealing tensions in the society between the educated, urbane, younger, more beautiful, world-friendly, in other words good progressive people on one side and uneducated, backward, irrational, prejudiced, xenophobic folks inhabiting mainly the countryside and small towns.

The situation is controlled by providing the entire cast of candidates: the good, the bad, and the ugly ones.

The choice is clear: in the long run the winner must be only one. The one who understands where the history’s arrow is pointing. Forward.

The Communist fake narrative was the primitive story of progress. The killings, the victims are mostly eliminated from the text or fake victims are presented instead. The post-1990 narrative strictly follows the same lines, although the slogans and details vary.

By listening to this story over and over again, people get used to the idea that this is THE story and expect more of the same the next time around. Brainwashing complete, check.

This narrative served the hideous dictatorship. Its aim was to provide justification for the entire system of direct and indirect violence. Today, this story continues to run in Poland.

The time invariance of this narrative and many other Communist invariants, which remain hidden from the media are key to understanding the system of control and social violence in Poland.

@LechSBorkowski