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Polish Lithuanian Diplomatic War? At last. [533]
Upon stumbling on this passage from "Identity and freedom: mapping nationalism and social criticism in twentieth century Lithuania" By Leonidas Donskis from 2002 I can't help thinking that it just as easily could be said about today's Poland. Just replace the words Lithuania and Lithuanian with Poland and Polish in the text below (last two paragraphs) and you'll probably will have an eerie sense of recognition.
The Polish minority, although it is well accommodated in Lithuania in terms of Polish education and institutional settings for Polish culture, it is still pursued by the shadow of pointless debates, often initiated by the renowned linguists and historians from the Lithuanian establishment, about whether they are "authentic" Poles or merely Polonised Belorussians and Lithuanians. However the historically unprecedented improvement, in recent times, in the relations between the nation-states of Poland and Lithuania was a result of a realistic and sound foreign policy pursued on both sides. This gives hopes that the destructive ethnic debates will sooner or later be exhausted at least as far as the Poles are concerned.
In spite of the quest for the adjustment to new global political realities and above all, the pressure from the European Union - Lithuania is applying for membership - there can be no miraculous recapture of Lithuania's multicultural past. Political and legal frameworks cannot easily displace the authentic cultural or even the metaphysical need for the Other; nor should they be too rashly taken as a sign of mature political and cultural tolerance.
There is still important ground to cover if the defensive nationalist culture is to be replaced by Lithuania being seen as one of the big family of modern democracies: this requires the recognition of otherness as a positive asset.Hence , the crucial importance of liberal social critique pursued by Kavolis, Shtromas and Venclova. Such political essays by Venclova as for instance, "Jews and Lithuanians", "Poles and Lithuanians", "Russians and Lithuanians" and "A Dialog about a City" (his dialog with Czeslaw Milosz on Vilnius) revealed a huge gap between the need for the Other - still vague category in Lithuanian politics and culture -
and a time-honoured tradition for self-centeredness, self-righteousness, and self-victimization.The gap remains a major problem of Lithuanian consciousness and culture. 