{"id":213,"date":"2008-08-27T17:36:46","date_gmt":"2008-08-27T21:36:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/?p=210"},"modified":"2014-06-10T14:31:57","modified_gmt":"2014-06-10T14:31:57","slug":"polish-pessimism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/polish-pessimism\/","title":{"rendered":"Polish Pessimism"},"content":{"rendered":"

A friend sent me this link<\/a> and asked me what I thought about it. Go ahead, read it, it\u2019s in English.
\nSo, apparently, Poles are pessimistic about the future. And how exactly is that news? Poles think that the country is heading in the wrong direction. Yeah, what else is new?<\/p>\n

Complaining about the future of the country is a long-standing Polish tradition. My countrymen have been doing it pretty much continuously for the past 1000 years, if not longer. I\u2019m pretty sure that back in the days of Mieszko I<\/strong> the local tribe leaders would get together, drink mead and complain about the direction Poland was heading. And then they would drink some more mead. And complain some more. And it\u2019s been going on like that until now. Except these days mead is no longer in vogue and people prefer vodka. And instead of Mieszko I<\/strong>, we now kvetch about what Mr. Tusk<\/strong> and Mr. Kaczy\u0144ski<\/strong> are doing.<\/p>\n

Why are Poles like that? Why are we so gloomy and pessimistic about the future?<\/p>\n

These days Poland seems better than ever. There\u2019s construction everywhere, the streets are clogged with shiny cars, and the people are well dressed in foreign fashions and well fed on imported and locally produced yummies. There\u2019s toilet paper in the stores, tampons and plenty of everything. Those who want can leave the country and move elsewhere to work or study. Those who can afford it can travel pretty much to wherever they desire. And those who can\u2019t afford it still do it and just charge it on their credit cards.
\nI mean, things can\u2019t be that bad in Poland if those who left four years ago are coming back now, right?<\/p>\n

\n

Yet you ask any random Pole how things are and you will hear \u201cbad\u201d<\/em>, or \u201cit\u2019s getting worse\u201d<\/em>.<\/p>\n

So, out of curiosity, today I decided to experiment a little and asked a couple of my friends how they were doing. What can I say? I was bored. But the results were very telling.<\/p>\n

Anna: \u201chey! Long time no hear! So, how are things?\u201d<\/em>
\nFriend #1 (sounding a bit apprehensive): \u201cOh, hey. Oh, you know\u2026\u201d<\/em>
\nAnna (decides to play stupid): \u201cKnow what?\u201d<\/em>
\nFriend #1: \u201cSame old, same old\u2026 nothing ever changes. And if it does, then it\u2019s not for the better. I tell you, this country is going down the tubes.\u201d<\/em>
\nAnna: \u201cSo I hear. So, tell me, how\u2019s your new house coming along?\u201d<\/em> (my friend is building a massive new family dwelling, big enough for about 20 people)
\nFriend #1: \u201cOh yeah! It\u2019s gonna be great. You totally have to come and visit. You\u2019ll love it. But when I think about how much it\u2019s going to cost to furnish this thing\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

And so on\u2026
\nMy conversation with friend #2 went more or less like this:<\/p>\n

Friend #2: \u201cThis country is a total mess. Nothing ever works. It\u2019s getting worse and worse.\u201d<\/em>
\nAnna: \u201cSo I\u2019ve been reading. Anything new?\u201d<\/em>
\nFriend #2: \u201cOh yeah, I just bought a new BMW.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

And there you have it, ladies and gentlemen. If a Pole is not complaining, check his pulse. He\u2019s probably dead.<\/p>\n

photo: BiLK_Thorn<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

A friend sent me this link and asked me what I thought about it. Go ahead, read it, it\u2019s in English. So, apparently, Poles are pessimistic about the future. And how exactly is that news? Poles think that the country is heading in the wrong direction. Yeah, what else is new? Complaining about the future…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":212,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[306823,7482,7513],"class_list":["post-213","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","tag-culture","tag-national-characteristics","tag-pessimism"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5409,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213\/revisions\/5409"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}