Word: totalitarian
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...impression is typical of the Western mind. It results from an apparently obvious assumption: if the state authorities publicly promise something, they will at least try to keep their promise. As far as the Eastern Bloc is concerned, this is a serious mistake. One should not forget that in totalitarian countries the authorities are completely beyond anybody's control (except their own internal control, of course). Even if, quite exceptionally, they are forced by a threat of popular rebellion to sign an agreement with true representatives of the society, it does not guarantee that later they will feel obliged...
Nobody knows, of course. But let us realize one simple thing. What happened in Poland is--so far--successful. And it is successful only because it demolished two foundations of a totalitarian state: fear (which ruins the structure of society) and lie (which ruins the hierarchy of values). There is another, equally important, foundation: brute force. But brute force can be efficient only when used together with fear and lie. When neither of them exists anymore; when violence can not be met by fear and justified by lie; even brute force is not able to suppress people's striving...
Early last week Gwiazda blasted the compromise as "a deplorable political mistake" and accused Solidarity's leadership of "no longer talking to the grass roots." Rulewski said that "this union was not created to make compromises, but to smash the totalitarian system in our country." Finally, by a vote of 348 to 189, the delegates reprimanded their leaders for "a violation of the principles of union democracy" because so few people had taken part in the decision. At week's end, however, the delegates overwhelmingly adopted a resolution accepting the new government laws on worker self-management...
...think I'm a fool, or that I am manipulated by the experts," he said, responding to charges that he depended too heavily on his advisers. Walesa berated the radicals for seeking "to destroy the Sejm [parliament] and government, take their place, and become more totalitarian than they are." He added: "This we cannot do-we must protect ourselves from ourselves...
...better to be afraid of unjust laws than to fear lawbreakers? We enthusiastically support Polish civil disobedience, yet we require of our civil servants totalitarian-like oaths that are illegal in the private sector...