#communist chic

[typeandcompany]

"Marge, I agree with you – in theory. In theory, communism works. In theory." - Homer J. Simpson, likely after visiting the French Communist Party HQ.

Fun fact: They rent much of it out for a bunch of capitalists now.

[lord-bajromi]

[garbagequeer]

waking up absolutely drenched in sweat in the middle of the night. they didn't pay tribute to the way we were once in all 7 seasons of riverdale

[nicklloydnow]

“Looking from East to West in the 90s, like Alice through the looking-glass, one could feel as confounded as the residents of Animal Farm. The Russian premier Boris Yeltsin spent the 90s spearheading "shock therapy" for the former Soviet Union. This process of economic liberalization, privatization and asset-stripping led to the concentration of wealth and power in the hands of an oligarchic elite, leaving the rest of the country to impoverishment, psychological shock, endemic organized crime and corruption. To the benefit of its leaders and the detriment of its people, the East became a mirror-image of the West's worst excesses. The Manics' critique of Western capitalism and its turbocharged adoption by the East, allied to their lack of faith in the practical application of communist ideology — though not the ideology itself — makes "Revol" an extension of the axiom of post-communist cynicism which states that Soviet leaders "were lying when they told us about communism, but were telling us the truth about capitalism."

The Manics' use of Soviet imagery in a post-Soviet world was not new, but The Holy Bible, with its lyrical preoccupations the band's adoption of military uniforms and the semi-logo of a Soviet war medal, saw it become something more definitive. How much of this was aesthetic opportunism, and how much politically earnest? Like the Manics, I grew up in impeccably Old Labour territory and, way before discussions on how to be a fan of problematic things, remember being starry-eyed about the Soviet Union. Any yearning for the USSR, though, had less to do with the reality of its final days and more to do with its symbolic opposition to a Conservative regime which was then laying siege to the industry, economy and community of my part of the country. I looked East in the way one might look to the stars in the hope of arbitrary rescue by occupants of interplanetary craft, with expectations about as realistic.

What had been a source of fear and fascination in the 1980s was, in the postmodern vacuum of the 90s, safely powerless and therefore kitsch. Fascination with the communist past — dubbed Ostalgie — tended to be denied any political dimension, allowed to manifest only in ironic or mocking forms, and very rarely linked with contemporary anti-capitalist critique (Pyzik, Poor). The Holy Bible's suffusion in Soviet chic, though, had more to it than ironic recuperation. Nicky Wire, when asked, "What do you think makes sense?", responded: "Certain kinds of socialism, where everyone is given a chance. A true egalitarian society where everyone is offered an education." As basic and uncontroversial as this is — and note the cautious "certain kinds" of socialism, pre-empting the conflation of socialism with Stalinism — it highlights the band's commitment to keeping the idea alive in politics and culture. The later Manics' Labourism appears almost uninterestingly mellow in comparison to The Holy Bible's morbid fascination with the extremes of Soviet communism, but neither approach denies the contemporary relevance of political history, or presents it merely as kitsch.” - Rhian E. Jones, ‘Unwritten Diaries: History, Politics and Experience through The Holy Bible’ [p. 76 - 78]

“Ballard, Saville, The Holy Bible all use shock tactics, aesthetics of gorgeous abjection to assault the viewer. Ballard does it with crashed bodies and psychologies smashed to shards; Saville with bloated bodies out of control, tragic flesh of saints, sanctified for their suffering with no meaning, of no purpose beyond the physical carrying-through of their existence. The Holy Bible does it with its ruptured squabbles, soul sores leaking pus of humanity's capitulation to the dark side, rotten missives, accusations, breakdowns and weaknesses, as if it can't stop shaking anymore.

All three want to make their mark on you, perceive their own mission as one of violence upon the spectator: a moral mission because amidst all the white noise and static of the information-entertainment world, the jeering is too loud, and the crying is all but drowned out. In the service of truth, the artist must lacerate, and the profound abjection of the body, the scarification of the self, the breaking of the taboo of the illusion of sanctity of the body as self-contained whole, is a perfectly acceptable way for encroaching on the complacency that allows us to live complicit lives. Aesthetic butchery is thus a moral enterprise. Obscenity, critically modulated, pulls you out of your comfort zone and makes you confront yourself, or at least the parts you hide daily in order to live in polite society and in good conscience with yourself.” - Daniel Lukes, ‘Fragments Against Ruin: The Books of Manic Street Preachers' The Holy Bible’ [p. 226, 227]

“The present absence of Richey endured even through the years immediately following his disappearance, when the band was most vociferously separating from their past. Speaking in 1996, Nicky stated, "We'll never fill that gap. We'll never get anoth er guitarist. James will never go over to that side of the stage" (qtd in Maconie, "We Shall Overcome" 88); the space of stage right became a sacred site of remembrance for the band, but also a heightened, present absence for fans. In the documentary for the tenth anniversary edition of The Holy Bible, James describes his discomfort whilst playing Reading Festival in 1994 as a three-piece (at this time, Richey was hospitalized), which included the fact that some of the fans "were staring at the space of the stage where Richey should be, refusing to look at me." This desire to look at the empty space usually occupied by an object perceived as valuable is arguably an expression of the connection between emptiness as an index of a sign that holds symbolic meaning; the absence ironically brings more meaning to the surface than was originally recognized in the object itself. In his discussion of the spectators who flocked to see the empty space in the Louvre from which the Mona Lisa had been stolen in 1911, Darian Leader posits that this incident makes manifest the split between art and the space it usually occupies, thereby prompting an interrogation of the usually unseen or hidden meaning in the artwork that typically isn't in question. In becoming a signifier of totemic mythologies of tortured genius and martyred rock stars, Richey's absence became an index for that signifier, whereby spectators intuit meaning even by staring into the void of the lost signifier. These mythologies then perpetuate a kind of lovely knowledge because they fit into an already established perspective and narrative of popular culture. Within the last twenty years, the proliferation of music magazine covers featuring Richey have played into this lovely knowledge, rather than confront the difficult knowledge his disappearance evokes.” - Larissa Wodtke, ‘Architecture of Memory: The Holy Bible and the Archive’ [p. 302, 303]

All passages from Triptych: An Examination of the Manic Street Preachers’ Holy Bible (2017)

[assiraphales]

tommy’s lil communist is straight out of a hallmark movie. they put a lot of thought into the aesthetics and said it’s gonna be COZY and CUTE and we gonna have fairy lights and old timey stores and fresh paint jobs and big ole community tables. the fashion code is working class chic. there’s going to be movie nights and caroling and —

[aloeverawrites]

Biden and Trump are the same you say.

Trump wants to destroy the left. Biden is considered center-left wing.

These are quotes from the Mandate of Leadership, the promise that conservatives are going to try and fulfill if they get power again.

Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise.

Right now Biden is in power. So the time we're under him must be the same as being under a government that believes this:

"children suffer the toxic normalization of transgenderism with drag queens"

"Overseas, a totalitarian Communist dictatorship in Beijing is engaged in a strategic, cultural, and economic Cold War against America’s interests, values, and people—all while globalist elites in Washington awaken only slowly to that growing threat."

Contemporary elites have even repurposed the worst ingredients of 1970s “radical chic” to build the totalitarian cult known today as “The Great Awokening.”

"Most alarming of all, the very moral foundations of our society are in peril. Yet students of history will note that, notwithstanding all those challenges, the late 1970s proved to be the moment when the political Right unified itself and the country and led the United States to historic political, economic, and global victories.

The Heritage Foundation is proud to have played a small but pivotal role in that story. It was in early 1979—amid stagflation, gas lines, and the Red Army’s invasion of Afghanistan, the nadir of Jimmy Carter’s days of malaise—that Heritage launched the Mandate for Leadership project.

"Conservatives should be confident that we can rescue our kids, reclaim our culture, revive our economy, and defeat the anti-American Left—at home and abroad. We did it before and will do it again.

"This is an agenda prepared by and for conservatives who will be ready on Day One of the next Administration to save our country from the brink of disaster.

The Heritage Foundation is once again facilitating this work. But as our dozens of partners and hundreds of authors will attest, this book is the work of the entire conservative movement. As such, the authors express consensus recommendations already forged, especially along four broad fronts that will decide America’s future:"

"The next conservative President must make the institutions of American civil society hard targets for woke culture warriors. This starts with deleting the terms sexual orientation and gender identity (“SOGI”), diversity, equity, and inclusion gender, gender equality, gender equity, gender awareness, gender-sensitive, abortion, reproductive health, reproductive rights, and any other term used to deprive Americans of their First Amendment rights out of every federal rule, agency regulation, contract, grant, regulation, and piece of legislation that exists"

"In our schools, the question of parental authority over their children’s education is a simple one:

Schools serve parents, not the other way around. That is, of course, the best argument for universal school choice—a goal all conservatives and conservative Presidents must pursue. But even before we achieve that long-term goal, parents’ rights as their children’s primary educators should be non-negotiable in American schools. States, cities and counties, school boards, union bosses, principals, and teachers who disagree should be immediately cut off from federal funds. The noxious tenets of “critical race theory” and “gender ideology” should be excised from curricula in every public school in the country"

"they are taught to deny the very creatureliness that inheres in being human and consists in accepting the givenness of our nature as men or women. Allowing parents or physicians to “reassign” the sex of a minor is child abuse and must end."

"But the pro-family promises expressed in this book, and central to the next conservative President’s agenda, must go much further than the traditional, narrow definition of “family issues.” Every threat to family stability must be confronted".

"Finally, conservatives should gratefully celebrate the greatest pro-family win in a generation: overturning Roe v. Wade, a decision that for five decades made a mockery of our Constitution and facilitated the deaths of tens of millions of unborn children. But the Dobbs decision is just the beginning. Conservatives in the states and in Washington, including in the next conservative Administration, should push as hard as possible to protect the unborn in every jurisdiction in America. In particular, the next conservative President should work with Congress to enact the most robust protections for the unborn that Congress will support while deploying existing federal powers to protect innocent life and vigorously complying with statutory bans on the federal funding of abortion."

"-A combination of elected and unelected bureaucrats at the Environmental Protection Agency quietly strangles domestic energy production through difficult-to-understand rulemaking processes; "Bureaucrats at the Department of Homeland Security, following the lead of a feckless Administration, order border and immigration enforcement agencies to help migrants criminally enter our country with impunity;

-Bureaucrats at the Department of Education inject racist, anti-American, ahistorical propaganda into America’s classrooms

-Bureaucrats at the Department of Justice force school districts to undermine girls’ sports and parents’ rights to satisfy transgender extremists;

-Woke bureaucrats at the Pentagon force troops to attend “training” seminars about “white privilege”; and

-Bureaucrats at the State Department infuse U.S. foreign aid programs with woke extremism about “intersectionality” and abortion."

So, the year is 2025. Every mention of "sexual orientation and gender identity (“SOGI”), diversity, equity, and inclusion gender, gender equality, gender equity, gender awareness, gender-sensitive, abortion, reproductive health, reproductive rights" has been erased from our laws.

Abortion is crminalised across the country.

Schools can't teach about being trans, gay or about race.

Parental control over their children's and teenagers education is absolute.

A cold war is "won" following in the footsteps of Ronald Regan.

The environmental protection agency has been targeted and domestic energy production, fossil fuels, are safe.

There has been a further crack down on migrants entering the country "illegally".

Federal programs that teach about intersectionality, abortion or white privileged have bene shut down.

And "transgender extremists" are no longer allowed to "control" women's sports.

A world where they have fulfilled their promise to reverse every human rights progress Biden has made and ensure that nothing as "liberal" happens again.

Oh and "[Trump's]  Republican rivals for the 2024 presidential nomination competed with one another to show who could be more vicious in encouraging uninhibited Israeli military action in Gaza,"

" Trump has also used the Israel-Hamas War to reinforce his positions on other issues remote from the conflict itself, particularly his hostility to Muslim refugees, making it clear that Gazans (and, likely, Muslims generally) would be stopped from entering the U.S. if he is reelected." https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2023/12/trump-israel-hamas-stance.html

Is that the world you want to live in in 2025?

[literaticat]

Hi Jenn! I'm curious, what goes into a chapter book proposal for editors? How much do you need? I know they all pretty much need to be series. I assume you'd need the first book in the series, do you need more completed? How many book ideas for the series would you need to have prepared and how much detail for each? Thank you!!

If I were selling a chapter book series, I'd have the first full book, and then a series proposal. That would consist of a paragraph or so introducing the overarching concept of the whole series, and then brief description of the first four books or so. (And then, possibly, a list of potential further topics/titles).

So perhaps something like:

Series Proposal: RED ROVER

The RED ROVER series follows a communist terrier committed to overthrowing both his so-called "owner" and the US Government -- and making sure he gets his fair share of treats along the way!

Book 1 (complete): MEET RED ROVER, in which we are introduced to Red and his comrades, including Marxie, an aggressive cat, Trotsky, a miniature horse, and Frida, an escaped parrot, all of whom are "owned" by a ridiculous human family who barely appear on the page. This unusual team must work together to foil their mutual foe: The Vet.

Potential further books in the series:

RED ROVER'S SPACE RACE, in which Red and his best friend Marxie work on an ambitious project for the animal science fair -- a real rocketship! But when they learn that a rival team (Trotsky and Frida) is also heading for outer space, it's a race against time to make sure all systems are go! But along the way they realize that they will be even more successful if they all work together.

RED ROVER GOES GLAMPING, our hero is sent to puppy camp -- but it turns out this is no place for a scruffy mutt like Red, and he misses his buddies back home! Can he convince the glamorous poodles and chic shih tzus at camp to abandon their satin pillows and join the glorious Pet Revolution? Or will he be forced to partake in the frivolity of the Dogeousie?

RED ROVER ON THE TOWN: Red and his besties are reunited and headed for NYC. Their "owner" plans to take Marxie to a cat show -- turns out she's not a Proletaricat after all -- she's a pure-bred Fancy Cat! The indignity sickens the team and they resolve to break Marxie out of her posh prison -- but they'll need the help of some street-wise New York Pizza Rats to put their plan into action!

More potential concepts:

RED ROVER AND THE HALLOWEEN HAUNT

RED ROVER HAS AN EARTH DAY ADVENTURE

RED ROVER SOLVES CRIMES

RED ROVER FOR PRESIDENT

RED ROVER: SHOPAHOLIC?

[dolce-tenebra-toscana]

* is sitting on a chair, sipping apple juice...in full goth watching Hell's Kitchen *

Ehm...i swear i can explain...MEANWHILE HAVE MY OC PESCA'S REDESIGN, SHE IS GOTH CHIC TOO NOW!!

* runs away cause she knows she went through too many phases before being at peace with herself *

( can't wait to go to Firenze with @bruttomisandro for a shopping session, they are my lil communist amazing bestie 💜💜)

[spaceintruderdetector]

Most anarchist perspectives on economics amount to a makeshift tableau ofanti-capitalist banalities borrowed on loan from Marxism and other social- ist ideologies. This largely-unconscious Marxist bias (with its built-in duality of evil, stingy capitalists versus caring, philanthropic communists) has en- cumbered anarchist thought with a surface-level, dichotomous analysis of economics itself—pulling it ever deeper into the black hole of generic and impotent leftism. This one-way transfer of ideological currency has also led to aninflated estimation of the actual worth of secondary, throwaway orifices of Marxism, as exemplified in the presently chic anarchist infatuation with anti-state or left-communism.

https://archive.org/details/the-old-calendrist-tracts-for-our-times-1-up/Enemy%20Combatants/Too%20Much%20of%20Nothing%20-%20An%20Anthology%20of%20Anti-Economic%20Thought%20%281-up%29/mode/2up

[beguines]

But rebranding communism, aside from the commercial logic inherent in such an approach, can only fail if it is aimed solely at that class of people who possess the privilege to wallow in the theoretical obscurantism that is offered as a replacement revolutionary theory. That is, a theory that can only be appreciated by those petty-bourgeois intellectuals who believe that conceptual opaqueness implies radicalism. If these theoretical substitutions do not resonate with the lived conditions of the most exploited and oppressed, but only by those whose class outlook is somewhat elitist, then we must wonder at their revolutionary status.

This does not mean we should endorse some banal anti-intellectualism and fetishize illiteracy as proletarian. After all, even the revolutionary theory of yesteryear might at first seem opaque now that large portions of the masses have been socialized, after decades of anti-communism, to forget the concepts that emerged from their struggles.

[. . .]

The point, here, is not whether or not a theory is difficult to understand; this is problem that can be solved by making education accessible to the most oppressed and exploited. Rather, whenever we encounter a new theory that speaks of overthrowing the existing social order, and claims to offer the conceptual tools for doing so, we should ask whether these tools are capable of providing a concrete analysis of concrete conditions and reflect the lived experience of the world's most exploited and oppressed. What we often discover when we ask this question, though, are theories that primarily speak to the lived experience of a very small and particular population based at the centres of capitalism: academics and intellectuals, activists already converted to socialism… the very lived experience of the chic theoretician who is attempting to make what was once understood as a privileged and "petty-bourgeois" social position into the basis for revolutionary action! Theory alienated from practice that contrives to speak in the name of praxis should be treated with suspicion.

J. Moufawad-Paul, The Communist Necessity

[cominternagent]

anti-imperialist communist chic terrorcore

[mmepastel]

Dans la foulée (enfin presque) de ma lecture de La petite communiste qui ne souriait jamais, je continue ma découverte de l’œuvre de Lola Lafon.

J’ai énormément aimé ce roman là, Chavirer. J’ai cru que c’était une histoire vraie, et même que l’autrice elle-même avait eu affaire à ce genre de problème, adolescente, tant cela respire le vrai. Cléo, l’héroïne du livre, est incroyablement incarnée, terriblement attachante. Mon attachement a sans doute été facilité, en plus du talent de l’écrivaine, par une quasi parfaite adéquation générationnelle : Lola Lafon est née en janvier 1974, moi en décembre de la même année. Sa Cléo suit ce même timing, avec des références que je connais : les blousons Chevignon que les bourges se devaient d’avoir au collège, les samedis soirs devant Champs-Elysées (je forçais mes parents), Jean-Jacques Goldman dans la radio (chez moi, il était méprisé), l’avènement contesté de Vanessa Paradis, l’avènement acclamé de Mylène Farmer…

Bref. Je me suis vite passionnée pour cette très jeune adolescente de treize ans, passionnée de danse, qui mord à l’hameçon de cette énigmatique Cathy qui distribue promesses, billets, cadeaux ; cette dame chic fait miroiter un avenir brillant qui fait rêver les jeunes filles (enfin, les enfants, à 13 ans, on n’est pas une jeune fille) ; elle prétend travailler pour une fondation destinée à aider les talents prometteurs, déceler celles qui pourront bénéficier d’une bourse. Elle les attire à des déjeuners étranges, où des hommes jouent à être séduits, réclament de la maturité, pour finalement réclamer des faveurs sexuelles. Traumatisée et éconduite pour sa demande d’aide financière, mais dans l’incompréhension totale de ce qu’elle a vécu, toujours désireuse de parvenir à obtenir une bourse pour une école de danse, Cléo devient à son tour une émissaire pour dénicher, dans son collège, des filles qui pourraient bénéficier de l’aide de la fameuse fondation.

C’est en raison de cette mutation de victime en complice que Cléo intègre une double culpabilité qui empêche la parole. Elle n’arrive pas à se pardonner. On suit son parcours de 13 à 48 ans, directement ou à travers des gens qu’elle a rencontrés. Ces personnes, ami, amoureuse, rencontre d’un soir, collègue, victime collatérale, apportent un éclairage à la personnalité de Cléo, une jeune fille sensible qui semble éternellement enfant, bloquée à ses treize ans, une jeune femme bosseuse, courageuse, qui réussit à faire de la danse son moyen de vivre mais reste verrouillée de l’intérieur. Très souvent renvoyée à ses origines modestes, à son milieu social. Qui peine à voir le mal pour la condition féminine dans le fait de danser dénudée à la télé ou dans des cabarets, c’est sa propre fille, majeure, qui lui fera entrevoir cette dimension. Mais qui apprend. Progressivement, elle apprend même à se battre pour ses droits. Mais du temps, il lui en faut encore beaucoup pour troquer l’oubli impossible contre le pardon.

En effet, elle a appris à se construire avec cette blessure, sans l’avoir soignée. On devine que la solution, partielle, si solution il y a, si guérison il peut y avoir, encore une fois, passe par le collectif, l’entourage, la bienveillance autour, même si des rencontres sont ratées, ou seulement à moitié réussies. Petit à petit, l’idée fait son chemin. En apprenant les manquements des autres aussi, leur probité vacillante. En comprenant la difficulté d’être intègre de A à Z. Accepter de ne pas être parfait, de ne pas avoir toujours eu la bonne clairvoyance, en comprenant qu’en n’étant pas la victime parfaite, elle était malgré tout une enfant, bel et bien victime.

Encore une fois, un beau livre sur le corps des filles que l’on sexualise bien trop tôt. Le corps que l’on désire, que l’on scrute, que l’on juge, que l’on travaille, que l’on malmène, qu’on évalue.

Ce livre a pas mal résonné avec l’actualité (oui je pense à Judith Godrèche), quand on pense que dans les années 80, il était bien vu de jouer à la grande, que les hommes étaient glorifiés pour leurs liens troubles avec de très très jeunes filles, et que beaucoup de familles s’enorgueillissaient de voir leur progéniture distinguée par ces hommes vus comme cérébraux, chics, alors qu’ils n’étaient que des prédateurs adoubés par une société malade. On ne connaissait pas encore le préjudice d’emprise… quelle naïveté, quelle candeur quand on y pense…

Un livre remarquable, puissant, touchant, implacable.

[lord-bajromi]

Kadri Azbiu

[garbagequeer]

what i imagine post s6 illegal casino owner/went shopping during occupy wall street veronica lodge and figurehead for unionization archie andrews varchie dinner conversations would be like:

archie: i really didn't expect this

veronica: you didn't expect to tell the world off either, did you archiekins?

archie: is that what you think im doing?

veronica: you bet i do

archie: im not telling off the world, ronnie. im just standing up for something i believe in. you're not angry when toothache tompkins* (*new riverdale villain) ridicules those men? calling them martyrs because they have guts to fight for their bill of rights? his bill of rights! and yours!

veronica: we dont have any bill of rights! we will never have free speech in riverdale!

archie: we will never if people wont take a stand!

veronica: we will never because people are scared! This isn't high school! This i grown up politics, archie. and it's stupid and dangerous!

archie: you're telling me to shut up because it's dangerous?

veronica: im telling you it's a waste, archiekins. And those men are only going to get hurt, and nothing is going to change. And after jail, after years of bad blood, when it is practical for an old money megalomaniac oil tycoon tyrant like toothache tompkins to finance jughead's chic new communist comic book because his reputation is in trouble, he'll do it! they'll publish it, they'll share burgers and shakes at pop's, and what did anybody go to jail for? for what? a pretentious political spat?

archie: ronnie, you're telling me to close my eyes and watch people being destroyed so you can work in a town that doesn't have spine enough to stand for anything but money?!

veronica: im telling you that people are more important than a goddamn witch hunt. you and me, archiekins. not causes. not principles

archie: ronnie, people are their principles

[cozyunoist]

what do you get from hume and what do you think communists can get from hume

I think the headscarf is quite chic personally

well as you might infer hume was very formative in my intellectual development, & i still recommend him insofar as he’s a wonderful writer! i think he motivates epistemology/metaphysics brilliantly, he takes you in the right direction re scepticism (particularly towards causation), & you can also straightforwardly draft him into the sort of expressivist-ish position i’ve sketched on here before.

that said, as for what communists can get from hume? i’m not sure that he is the most sophisticated exponent of any of his positions. which is ultimately a good thing! he thought and wrote in a way that made him easy to take up. but it also means hume studies (phenomenal journal btw) today is going to be more historical than philosophical. i also have some bones to pick with him on apraxia, naturalism & bayle’s dictionary. he’s an academic, i’m a pyrrhonist; he’s a vague conservative; i’m communist. maybe what this means is that hume is best as a stepping-stone on the road towards getting comfortable talking with people doing philosophy again. he certainly was for me! as well as, ofc, great style inspo.

it’s not directly pertinent, but my personal story with hume is a little too funny not to share. i was 13 the first time i cracked the first critique. it felt a little like hitting my head against the wall… i had something like fifty pages of marginal notes on the first ten pages, and was really going in more or less blind. i’m most of the way through the second preface, & i get to kant saying ‘hume was pretty close, but his argument leads us to believe metaphysics is just delusion’. i was like, thank god, i should just go read this hume guy instead. so i put the book down, check out hume’s enquiry, read it satisfiedly, & don’t touch kant again for like four or five years.

[nevermelting]

I know that not many polish people will relate but it's so lonely to be someone from the polish elites/szlachta. Generally speaking, minor aristocracy as a concept is now long forgotten and when you mention that you are an 'aristocrat', most western people imagine glamorous ballrooms, chic dresses and so on. And you aren't anything like that. Polish minor aristocracy's life is drenched in the blood of war. These people were mostly military men and their wives and children, often so poor that that were two steps away from living like farmers themselves. Not many people know that after the two world wars plus communist rule the general population of Poland is not the same as it once was. To put it simply, minor aristocracy, the major power that fueled polish armies, was wiped out, destroyed in communist and Nazi death camps, died from various repressions. The Poland I belong to is no longer there. Reminders of this are constant. When the conversation touches Polish mythology/folklore, I constantly imagine...stories of kings and priests and merry Jewish merchants... You know, attributes of minor aristocrat's life. And then poles I know remember witches, werewolves, some kind of old country beliefs and I begin to get it.. While still 'poles', they are different poles. They are farmers. And, while genetically close, we will never understand each other. I scroll through another blog of country women in national dresses, labelled as 'Beautiful Poland'. But those dresses are actually similar to Ukrainian ones and Czech ones and Slovak ones. Farmers are the same everywhere, almost the same. They have their brotherhood and their universal laws and folk traditions. And apart from radical nationalists (which I don't want to deal with) no one talks about polish aristocracy, which is nothing like Ukrainian and Czech, it's an unique phenomenon, for better for worse.

It's very lonely.