During my holidays in Poland I came up with a startling observation: when we have a lot of young people of similar age and experience when they get around 20 years old, they rebel. Nothing new you would say? Maybe. Look at the examples I have found:
1. Of course 1968 - the sexual revolution of Woodstock, Western Europe with parallel student protests in Poland. Where do you find the origins. Just look at the date - it is precisely 20-23 years after the end of the WWII. Baby boomers were born in USA and Europe and since they reached 20 they jointly rebeled against the 'system'.
2. 1848 - The spring of nations. Everybody loses from sight that only in 1814-15 the Napoleon wars were over. The French invasion of Europe cost millions of lives so I do not need to ask demographers what happened when finally he was sent to his prison island. And where 1848 was most visible? France, German lands, Austria, Poland, Hungary (have you heard about Lajos Kosuth - leader of the Hungarian uprising).
3. 1944 - Warsaw uprising in Poland. This is an event not well known in European history cause during the 45 years of Polish communist republic it was actually hidden by the ruling Workers Party. This uprising - a great tragedy of the whole generation with almost 200 000 lives lost and the capital of Poland turned in ruins - was also a mostly generational 'no' to the years of slavery under the Nazi Germany. The decision to start the uprising was taken probably without taking into account the tragic strategic background. But watching the films etc. in Poland I realised that this euforia of young generation was probably very difficult to control.
4. 1980 - The Solidarnosc movement. Everybody heard about Lech Walesa and the movement of young workers in Polish shipyards and coalmines. But the generation aspect of this political movement has not been noticed. What generation was it - you may ask. It was just the second wave of kids born after the WWII. Lech Walesa belonged to an older generation but he led to the strike mostly young people who did want to live with the paradoxes, shortages and lack of liberty.
What is the conclusion of my theory of revolutions. This year we celebrate 20 years since the fall of the Communist regims and the Berlin Wall. The generation born in liberty will claim things which are maybe beyond the vision of the old generation. I hope that widespread feudal structures in Polish higher education, administration, health care, political parties will be peacefully challenged by those who 'did not know that what they dared was impossible'. Many young people in Poland voted with their legs leaving Poland for UK, Ireland and USA. That is how some of the fundamental flaws of Polish mental reality have been rejected, changed for better Western conditions. But since the economic crisis thrown many of them out of the labour market many of them will come back and claim what they believe should be their right. I hope for a peaceful revolution. The elections approaching in 2010 will be a good occassion for new initiatives. I hope for an emergence of a new party on the left side of the political scene. This should be a party of minorities: sexual, religious, gender, green, regionalist. I think that there is a big potential for such.
1. Of course 1968 - the sexual revolution of Woodstock, Western Europe with parallel student protests in Poland. Where do you find the origins. Just look at the date - it is precisely 20-23 years after the end of the WWII. Baby boomers were born in USA and Europe and since they reached 20 they jointly rebeled against the 'system'.
2. 1848 - The spring of nations. Everybody loses from sight that only in 1814-15 the Napoleon wars were over. The French invasion of Europe cost millions of lives so I do not need to ask demographers what happened when finally he was sent to his prison island. And where 1848 was most visible? France, German lands, Austria, Poland, Hungary (have you heard about Lajos Kosuth - leader of the Hungarian uprising).
3. 1944 - Warsaw uprising in Poland. This is an event not well known in European history cause during the 45 years of Polish communist republic it was actually hidden by the ruling Workers Party. This uprising - a great tragedy of the whole generation with almost 200 000 lives lost and the capital of Poland turned in ruins - was also a mostly generational 'no' to the years of slavery under the Nazi Germany. The decision to start the uprising was taken probably without taking into account the tragic strategic background. But watching the films etc. in Poland I realised that this euforia of young generation was probably very difficult to control.
4. 1980 - The Solidarnosc movement. Everybody heard about Lech Walesa and the movement of young workers in Polish shipyards and coalmines. But the generation aspect of this political movement has not been noticed. What generation was it - you may ask. It was just the second wave of kids born after the WWII. Lech Walesa belonged to an older generation but he led to the strike mostly young people who did want to live with the paradoxes, shortages and lack of liberty.
What is the conclusion of my theory of revolutions. This year we celebrate 20 years since the fall of the Communist regims and the Berlin Wall. The generation born in liberty will claim things which are maybe beyond the vision of the old generation. I hope that widespread feudal structures in Polish higher education, administration, health care, political parties will be peacefully challenged by those who 'did not know that what they dared was impossible'. Many young people in Poland voted with their legs leaving Poland for UK, Ireland and USA. That is how some of the fundamental flaws of Polish mental reality have been rejected, changed for better Western conditions. But since the economic crisis thrown many of them out of the labour market many of them will come back and claim what they believe should be their right. I hope for a peaceful revolution. The elections approaching in 2010 will be a good occassion for new initiatives. I hope for an emergence of a new party on the left side of the political scene. This should be a party of minorities: sexual, religious, gender, green, regionalist. I think that there is a big potential for such.
I have the feeling that here in Germany, 20 years after the fall of the Wall, the generation of the digital natives has the chance of becoming the "revolutionary" generation.
ReplyDeleteIts political potential is just developing, but you already see the evolving collective rebellion against all those who have no idea how to use the internet and relevant digital technologies.
Still, I hope that it will remain an evolutionary process and less revolutionary - the first one brings about more reasonable result...