Today we took a tour of Nowa Huta; an old socialist factory town built in the 1950s to counter the cultural and capitalist hedonism of nearby Krakow. To me it looked incredibly similar to any low-income neighborhood in Krakow, like the one where I’m staying now. Uniform concrete high-rise apartments, a few small shops and churches, but mostly empty buildings sprayed with graffiti, and lots of elderly people out and about during the day. When I mentioned this last point to Marchin, Ania’s boyfriend, he said that it was because the small number of young people who live in Nowa Huta commute to Krakow to work, and most of the residents these days are retired factory workers who moved to the community from the Polish countryside in the 1950s.
I thought our tour guide’s explanations of the churches was particularly interesting, a perfect example of the “imaginary” identity I was thinking about yesterday. He mentioned over and over “The Polish people are very strong Roman Catholic, some say that is what made the communist system fail here.” It reminded me of the tendency Roger Davies mentions, of nations to rewrite their own history, or at least just emphasize the good parts. Our migration professor mentioned that her research on Polish immigrants in Chicago confirmed this tendency- most of them (incorrectly) assumed that their forefathers had fled political oppression, but in reality their reasons for migration were mostly economic.
My conversation with Marchin also made me think about some of my earlier musings about the onset of secularism as Poland becomes further integrated into the EU. I told him about my idea and asked him what he thought. “I think you are exactly right,” he said. “Things are changing. The church used to run the government, now no more.” I couldn’t help but notice the large cross around his neck, and thought about Ania’s statement that they “sometimes” go to church, and how she spends the night at his flat at least once a week. Marchin asked me about politics and religion the United States, and the upcoming Presidential election. I told him the U.S. was different from Western Europe in this respect. In France, for example, politicians don’t mention God or religion, nor do they make campaign speeches in churches or court religious organizations. In the U.S., they’re all doing that right now. A lot of people in the U.S. take comfort in the idea that the President is somehow close to God. After September 11, I said, the President Bush played on that feeling, combined with a newfound sense of fear, in order to gain support for some policies his administration had wanted to pursue for a long time, like the war in Iraq. “So, you don’t like the war?” Marchin asked. “I had a pretty bad feeling about it in the beginning,” I said. “I think it was a careless, brash mistake that will end up costing the U.S. and the Iraqi people a lot of lives and money. But, I think it’s also important that the U.S. think long and hard about the best way to end our role there, we don’t want to cause more problems by leaving than we have already. It’s a tough situation.” Marchin nodded. “But, U.S. went to Iraq to get Osama Bin Ladin,” he said. I nearly chocked on my tea. Poland may be changing, but there’s still a long way to go. To be fair, I can think of plenty of Americans who would have said the exact same thing.
