UK, Ireland /
POLES SUPERIOR TO BRITS? [260]
You're missing the point, Guest. If Polonius asks the question "Are Poles Superior To Brits?" and then starts getting righteous about colonialism and subjegation and saying that 'traditionally' Poland was so tolerant (a fact I'm aware of and have argued for against hostile forces) then I have a right to play him at his own game.
Are you aware that in 19th Century Britain poor people were locked up in places similar to prisons. They were very restricted in their ability to move and, if they fell on poor times, were often transported back to their original town/village. Working people did not have the vote until late into the 19th Century. So how much do you think the ordinary Brit had the power to oppose the government over colonialism? How much education was there?
I hear people slag the British for colonialism, for messing up WW2, for mad cow disease. But how much do you really think this is the fault of the ordinary Briton? How much was the transportation of orphans and children to Australia during the 1940's and 1950's the fault of ordinary Brits, who probably weren't even aware it was going on? Do you blame the Germans for WW1 and WW2? Do you think all Germans were responsible? Do you blame all Russians for the Soviet suppression of Poland?
If you read about the expulsions of the Germans after the war, you find some adminstrators were only too happy to get rid of them (not surprisingly), while others bent the rules slightly to allow them to stay because it was useful to have them to work the land. Now, these are the same people who were running the country in 1947.
Things like Akcja Wisła are not things I hold any blame about because they are not my history. I have no investment in it. I have spoken to people who DO blame Poles. I've also spoken to old people who finish their wartime recollections with... "And then came the Ukrainians", to a deafening and chilling silence. I've heard an old man say, "If Hitler hadn't stopped them, the Jews would have taken over Poland!" Yet there's no way I think ALL Poles hold such views. I have to walk a line and have to hear all and say nought, occasionally.
If the conversation is going to focus on 'colonialism', one might ask exactly how Poland got to be the biggest force in Europe at one point (reaching upto Estonia, I believe). Somehow I don't think it was because all these little groups and tribes were rushing to join the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth without a bit of coercion.
