{"id":1329,"date":"2009-12-16T15:35:37","date_gmt":"2009-12-16T21:35:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/crawler\/?p=1329"},"modified":"2009-12-16T15:35:37","modified_gmt":"2009-12-16T21:35:37","slug":"the-generation-gap-in-communist-nostalgia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/2009\/12\/16\/the-generation-gap-in-communist-nostalgia\/","title":{"rendered":"the generation gap in communist nostalgia"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Che<\/a>
\nThe Sofia Echo<\/a>\u00a0reports on the debate in Poland over a new ban on symbols of communism.\u00a0 It seems much of the disagreement is between those who were alive during the communist era and the younger generation:<\/p>\n

Evocative symbols of Europe’s troubled past, such as the swastika, have long been illegal in a number of countries across the continent.\u00a0But now, Poland has gone one step further.\u00a0Poland has revised its criminal code to include a ban on symbols of communism.\u00a0And, Poles can now be fined or even imprisoned if they are caught with a red star, a hammer and sickle or even a Che Guevara t-shirt.<\/p>\n

To some, it is a natural reaction for a country that suffered so much from communism under the Soviet Union.\u00a0But these days, many younger Poles are more likely to see communism as a source of satirical fun and creativity.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Sociologist Jutyna Kopczynska of\u00a0Warsaw University\u00a0says that Polish youth may be sympathetic to their elders’ suffering, but are more likely\u00a0to see this as an issue of freedom and personal style:<\/p>\n

“The young people are rebellious a bit.\u00a0They think about their future and their freedom, and they want to show that they are free,” said Kopczynska.\u00a0“So wearing a t-shirt with Che Guevara doesn’t mean that I am communist, but it means that I am trendy. The generation gap in our country is so huge that it’s hard to make a compromise.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There are still questions about\u00a0how the new ban will be applied,\u00a0which is one explanation\u00a0for the conflicted feelings of some young Poles:<\/p>\n

The ban includes a number of exemptions for artists, educators and collectors of communist relics.\u00a0And, so far no one has published an official list of exactly which symbols are outlawed. Critics have complained that the law is too hazy to actually be applied.
\n\u00a0
\nOne woman speculates that this is why there has been little public outrage, even among the younger generation.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Twenty-four-year-old Lukasz Pawlowski says he agrees with the ban, if only because it protects the feelings of older Poles.
\n\u00a0
\n“I can understand that people who actually lived at that time, in the communist era, who were hurt by this system – it might upset them to see young people who might have basically no knowledge about this system and didn’t live in that, wearing the symbols they don’t understand. Wearing them probably just for fun,” he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Sofia Echo\u00a0reports on the debate in Poland over a new ban on symbols of communism.\u00a0 It seems much of the disagreement is between those who were alive during the communist era and the younger generation: Evocative symbols of Europe’s troubled past, such as the swastika, have long been illegal in a number of countries […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":336,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[39074],"tags":[39112,321,122,117,100],"class_list":["post-1329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sightings","tag-culture","tag-law","tag-lifecourse","tag-trends","tag-youth"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/336"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1329"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1329\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1331,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1329\/revisions\/1331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}