Okay I am both (partially) Polish-American and have a nice shiny degree in Japanese studies and... I was totally ignorant of the Polish-Japanese relationship discussed in this piece. Well, thanks for enlightening me about it Ed. :D
Oh and I think that the biggest potential menace faced by Poland now is annexation by the American Empire -- I can't imagine America allowing a country that is rising the way Poland is rising to remain under conservative nationalist control. It will end up meeting the same fate as Ireland.
Ireland's fate seems most likely to be ever-tighter integration into US corporate dominance with whatever flavour of washing is in vogue at the time (green, woke, etc).
Even given the many downsides of that, it would still be a better outcome than what the post-Soviet countries are staring at.
A bit late, but I’ll just say that a lot of Polish problems would have been avoided had it not interfered with Muscovy during the Time of Troubles. This (not unjustly) created the image of Poles as an existential threat to Russia (they were not viewed like that before, rivals, yes, but nothing more dramatic than that). After those events, no quarter was given for a very long time. Oh well, the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must. Only the roles have been switching.
Odd culture note, for some reason -- probably the absence of a considerable Polish population in the American south -- during my childhood, the ethnic jokes had all been reconfigured as "pollock" jokes to render them safe(?). Nobody in my second grade class knew what a "pollock" was, but we all knew the jokes about them.
Then I grew up and looked into Polish history and HOLY HECK NO NO none of those jokes describe Polish national character at all
Interesting articles. I think the Warsaw Ghetto and the heroic uprising in 1943 merited a mention though.
yes, you're probably right.
Okay I am both (partially) Polish-American and have a nice shiny degree in Japanese studies and... I was totally ignorant of the Polish-Japanese relationship discussed in this piece. Well, thanks for enlightening me about it Ed. :D
Oh and I think that the biggest potential menace faced by Poland now is annexation by the American Empire -- I can't imagine America allowing a country that is rising the way Poland is rising to remain under conservative nationalist control. It will end up meeting the same fate as Ireland.
surely the Russian Empire is far worse!
Reckon the prestige resulting from the war has postponed any colour revolution for a couple of years at least!
I don't think Russia has designs on hegemony over Poland, does it?
It will happen eventually anyway. Ireland didn't have a color revolution per se, but it still got annexed.
Unfortunately for Poland, they were already named as a potential future target for "denazification".
https://www.newsweek.com/oleg-morozov-russia-poland-denazification-comment-1706552
And maybe not just Poland and the Baltic states.
https://ecfr.eu/article/echo-of-empire-why-russias-war-on-ukraine-troubles-all-post-soviet-countries/
Ireland's fate seems most likely to be ever-tighter integration into US corporate dominance with whatever flavour of washing is in vogue at the time (green, woke, etc).
Even given the many downsides of that, it would still be a better outcome than what the post-Soviet countries are staring at.
Yikes. Didn't know that, either.
I really hope Poland is able to maintain its sovereignty away from both the American and Russian Empires.
A bit late, but I’ll just say that a lot of Polish problems would have been avoided had it not interfered with Muscovy during the Time of Troubles. This (not unjustly) created the image of Poles as an existential threat to Russia (they were not viewed like that before, rivals, yes, but nothing more dramatic than that). After those events, no quarter was given for a very long time. Oh well, the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must. Only the roles have been switching.
Odd culture note, for some reason -- probably the absence of a considerable Polish population in the American south -- during my childhood, the ethnic jokes had all been reconfigured as "pollock" jokes to render them safe(?). Nobody in my second grade class knew what a "pollock" was, but we all knew the jokes about them.
Then I grew up and looked into Polish history and HOLY HECK NO NO none of those jokes describe Polish national character at all
Informative and well-written articles on Polish history. A bit hagiographic, could’ve mentioned some negative points in their history.
Thank You. Also, I forgot "Small Men on the Wrong Side of History" was by You. Sheesh on me!
did you not notice the name of the substack :)
Yeah, I did. Amazingly.
I probably knew about the book at one time. But I forgot and just ran across it again this morning. SHEESH on me! :-)