Meritocracy and Community in Twenty-First-Century Poland

Poland has never been as homogenous as its ethnolinguistic composition would lead one to believe. In fact, it is every bit as diverse as countries with sharp linguistic, racial, or religious divides. The only difference is that the conflicts and tensions expressed elsewhere between ascriptive communities are experienced in Poland within a shared label of identity. Just because two Poles speak the same language, get baptized in the same church, and identify as Polish does not mean that they define Poland in the same way. In reality, there are at least two Polands today, and the conflict between them has intensified in recent years. This cultural divide is more complicated and crosscutting than any handy categories of rich and poor, young and old, urban and rural, Catholic and secular. There are tendencies that link these various categories, but there is a deeper clash that cuts right through them. At the root of this division is a chasm of incomprehension involving the fundamental and rival concepts of merit and community.