Defiance

If the was a ranking of Poles’ most infuriating traits, I would place defiance on top of it. Looking at misbehaviours of many of my compatriots, I surmise they do silly things not only out of their selfishness, but to spite others and to manifest their ill-construed freedom.

I am a member of Obywatele Ursynowa group on facebook. The community has now more than 20,000 members and is an online arena of clashes. Pedestrians, cyclist and drivers clash. Dog-owners and turd-hunters clash. Around the New Year’s Eve firework-aficionados clashed with defenders of fearful pets. And so on and so forth.

The set-up of each quarrel is similar. Representatives of one band make their points, then representatives of the opposite band come up with their counterpoints which leads to online fights in which, apart from insults and lack of openness to someone else’s standpoint, I observe examples of sticking to one’s liberties stubbornly.

Fireworks zealots underline their right to celebrate New Year’s Eve (and Day). Pet-defenders underline right of animals to survive the night without tranquilizers. The latter group are occasionally supported by those who (rightly) remind the sound of cracking fireworks is bothersome for infants, elderly and mentally disabled people, as well as contributes to fires and injuries. The fireworks zealots remain deaf and blind to reasoning of their opponents and end up banning fireworks detracts from their personal liberty. Note then next each year, despite more frequent appeals to shun shooting fireworks, the cannonades are getting only louder. I fear the appeals are counter-productive, I mean, if a Pole is asked to refrain from doing something, they will do it with more intensity, out of pure defiance.

Similar examples of what f**ks me up are:

- drivers’ claims no one should take away their liberty of sitting in oversized cars in traffic jams, taking short-distance journeys, or to park wherever they need, especially when they occupy pavements or damage green areas,

- owners of old houses who burn rubbish or whatever cheap stuff in their furnaces, who claim mandatory switching to more environment-friendly method of heating their dwellings deprives them of doing what they want in their houses,

- people dumping rubbish or not cleaning their dogs’ turds, claiming no one would instruct them what to do in a public space,

- cyclists who ride like lunatics on pedestrian areas or use a road when there is a cycling path running parallel to it, claiming it is their choice where to cycle,

- party participants who claim playing music loud or screaming their lungs out at night is what they are entitled to as part of having fun.

and many, many others.

The common denominator of all stances described above is doing socially undesirable things at the expense of others. One’s own liberty ends with encroaching on fellow men’s freedoms and rights, including the right to breathe in clean air, to live in clean environment, to feel safe, to have rest at night, etc.

A decent and sensitive human should mind whether to make full use of what is (sometimes mistakenly) considered to be a liberty. A self-containment in all spheres, namely not necessarily doing what you want to not indulging in what brings you joy, but might make others worse-off is what I praise and advocate.