The peripheralisation of the semi-periphery
great-grandchildren of the slaves as part of these values, ‘no longer having real masters, are terribly frightened before the imaginary masters’ (Hartman 2017). Much has to change in order to return the situation (Siedlecka 2017) to the times of declining communism – with the leading role of the ruling party, including the slogan ‘the party’s programme – the nation’s programme’. The identity of the PiS’s and communist Polish states are still quite distant from one another, although the dynamics of the situation inspire no optimism.
5. Tyranny Tyranny is another concept describing the phenomenon analysed herein. This is the tyranny of the majority in the sense of John Stuart Mill (1859) or the tyranny of the masses, which Marcin Król identifies in contemporary Polish conditions with the tyranny of liars and fools (“Zapanowała..., 2017), and therefore with symbolic violence. It is a playing ‘on the feeling of security and the inclination of every person to evil‘ (ibidem). It consists in preventing discussion, which must result in resolving conflicts by force. The goal of the tyranny of the majority is the exercise of power itself rather than achieving any political goals by this power (Szubartowicz 2017). While democracy is not a moral but a political system in which citizens decide their fate, and the authorities follow procedures not limited to elections but also applicable to the manner of governance, in the case of the PiS government one is dealing with a situation in which the majority impose their moral views (ibidem). This is accompanied by a permanent lie, unheard even during communist rule. In this context, the Minister of the Interior claims that the police are not to judge whether someone is breaking the law (Jałowiecki 2017b); they are presumably to follow the political orders of their superiors – even if against law. It is difficult not to get the impression that this is the case when the prosecutor’s investigation into the public hanging of opposition MEPs’ photographs begins by questioning the victims, the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister praise the march of nationalists and xenophobes (ibidem), and the abovementioned minister ‘did not see’ fascist excesses
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