[lbo-talk] Class and Kink

Andy F andy274 at gmail.com
Wed Jan 10 02:29:58 PST 2007


On 1/9/07, Chris Doss <lookoverhere1 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Why so, more so than elsewhere? Is it a way of
> revolting against the destruction of that system
> brought about by the communists (seen as an outidee
> anti-Polish force), or a means of asserting a Glorious
> Past relative to Poland's current third-rate (maybe
> second) status in Europe, both, or neither?

Interesting. The Czechs, by comparison, tend to show a lot of disdain for any pretensions of high birth, often to the point of conceit. I always figured this was because they formed the servant class to the Habsburgs for 300 years, with an icing of socialist mores. They lost their native aristocracy in 1620 and regard that as a national disaster, but didn't the Poles lose theirs not long after?

When I lived there it was high praise to refer to a manufactured object as "normal, Czech", not so much out of economic nationalism as an expression of its humble utility, like the sort of kitchenware you'd buy at a hardware store.

"Nobl" translates roughly as "highfalootin'".

-- Andy



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