History /
Ordinary Polish people who collaborated with the Communist authorities? [28]
I don't think either one of you got my point.
The most numerous crimes against the government back then was black marketing and bribes, and EVERYBODY was doing it. And everyone knew it was against the law. Everyone, but the biggest puts kombinowal.
Ratting out your neighbour, or "collaborating" as some like to spin it, was not a political act, but a underhanded move by somebody driven by envy, revenge or self preservation.
You mad at your neighbor? Drop a dime on him! Did you get busted and can get off by giving up your dealer? Give him up! It should sound familiar, it is very succesfully done in the US. Certainly not the thing only seen in communist countries.
Incidentally, the kind of people that did the "collaborating" back then are the same kind that demand punishment for the "collaborators" now. Politics has nothing to do with it, but they throw it in because it's to their advantage, same way the law was used to one's own advantage back then.
But there is another, much more insidious implication on those that managed to adopt, or even thrive in those times. It doesn't matter if they may accomplished it with wisdom and work ethic. They must have done it by knowing somebody in government! If you tear their life apart, you'll probably find something, because either they were not "clean" or knew someone who wasn't.
