Politics & Power Quote by Aleksander Kwasniewski

Kwasniewski’s line tries to smuggle something unfashionably binding back into post-Communist politics: obligation. By defining the nation as “a community,” he drains the word of its usual nationalist charge (blood, soil, destiny) and refills it with a civic, almost municipal sensibility. A nation isn’t a costume you put on at football matches; it’s a shared room you have to keep livable. The repetition is doing quiet work here. “Community of individuals” nods to liberal democracy and the dignity of the person, a crucial pivot for a leader who came up through a system that often treated individuals as expendable parts. “Community of generations” adds a second axis: time. It reframes politics as stewardship, not just competition among the living.

The subtext is a balancing act tailored to Poland’s 1990s and early 2000s dilemmas: how to pursue rapid market reforms, EU integration, and institutional change without igniting the cultural backlash that comes when people feel their past is being insulted or erased. “Generations” is a bridge word, signaling respect for memory (including older sacrifices and traditions) while implicitly asking the young to accept duties they didn’t vote for: taxes, reforms, patience.

It also functions as an argument against the politics of pure grievance. If the nation is cross-generational, no party gets to treat it as proprietary. You inherit it, you borrow it, you pass it on - and that makes today’s moral grandstanding look smaller than the long haul.