Poland syndrome

Poland is in the midst of a transition from on political and economic system to another. Because of the dramatic differences between the two systems, the problems of adaptation are enormous. One of the most debilitating problems is the state of learned helplessness in which many people operate. Learned helplessness is the approach of someone who has come to believe that he can do nothing to improve his situation. Such a perception causes very low self-esteem and eventually depression. This syndrome is more and more conspicuous in Poland. It is occasioned by the fear of losing one's job, combined with the deep conviction that nothing can be done to prevent this from happening.

With the structural changes in the economy, many people in jobs that traditionally enjoyed high prestige (coal miners, steel workers) became expendable almost overnight. Their previous skills and education were suddenly irrelevant.

The increasing number of suicides could probably be seen as a very dramatic indicator of the psychological situation of deep distress from 3,657 cases in all of 1989 to 3,000 cases in the first six months of 1993. Increased levels of alcoholism, drug abuse and family violence were also noted. Particularly high rates of social pathology prevail in regions of mass unemployment. Especially endangered are men, and people over 50. Aggravating the situation is the fact that though many people (50 percent, according to a study by psychologists at Wroclaw University) think their chances in the job market would improve if they tried to get new qualifications, they refuse this alternative. Why? After living under a command economy with virtually no unemployment, they are convinced that it is the state's obligation to supply citizens with jobs, not the citizens' role to look for jobs or to adapt to demands of the market.

Why is adaptation to the market so incredibly slow? One reason is the general educational situation in the country. Seventy percent of the population has only a primary education--eight years of schooling. Even more alarming is the fact that, according to research by Zbigniew Kwiecinski of Poznan University, 30 percent of the people are functionally illiterate. They know letters but they do not understand texts. This reality was confirmed by some mass-media research which indicated that 75 percent of the nation does not understand basic terms used in the press and on TV. This group also never reads books. Thus a large portion of the population is removed from information about the world unless it were to be translated into concrete terms. And even it if were, these people are not well situated to seek more education, new perspectives or better qualifications.

Research shows that people over 40 who have only a primary education are not likely to become retrained. Most employees fall into this category. Only six in 100 people have an academic education, and 20 in 100 have a secondary education (four years after the eight years of primary). This educational deficit creates a mentality which is passive, anti-individualistic, oriented to external commands, and quite at home with populist sentiments.

It should be noted too that Poles lack real experience with capitalism. Some have visited the West, and some remember the Poland of the 1920s and '30s. Hence one finds uncritical apologies for Western capitalism in some quarters and a panicky fear of it in others. Meanwhile, Polish economic activity these days might be considered at best as the stage of primitive accumulation, the earliest phase of capitalism.

THE ROMAN Catholic Church's response to these changes seem to be based on two papal encyclicals, Centessimus annus and Laborem Excernses. The church looks favorably on the market economy in general, first because it is based on personal freedom, and second because it supports human creativity and cooperation. There does not seem to be a problem of combining capitalism and Catholic social teaching.

At the same time, the encyclicals contend that some questions should be voiced quite clearly. Among the most prominent: How can one stimulate social energy? What institutions should be created in order to stimulate human creativity and prepare for the challenges that economic freedom poses?

On the practical level the church faces many challenges. How is the parish to be converted into a real center of help for those who are most needy? What are the means for influencing the government's social policy? One of the issues officially addressed by church-oriented media is that of plating efficient managers in charge of plants and companies instead of selling them to the West. Privatization of industry is generally opposed by the church and a system of managerial responsibility endorsed. It is also proposed that industrial giants like the steel industry in Craeow should be converted into smaller, independent and more flexible units.

As for unemployment, the church has taken a clear stand: unemployment is the ultimate social evil, particularly when planned, structural unemployment is considered as a means for rectifying the national economy. The church is suggesting not only that financial help be offered to people who are losing their jobs, but that assistance be given in creating new jobs and in finding existing ones. The Polish bishops, meeting in conference, have set these explicit goals. In the dioceses, committees are being formed to help the unemployed financially and with skills---how to write a resume, how to act during a job interview, where to look for jobs, how to start one's own enterprise.

Both church and government stress that there can be no return to the previous economic system, and that there is no alternative to a market-oriented economy. The new government, which could be considered a leftist one, is supported by the church. The Farmers Faction, which has formed a coalition with social democrats, is seen as a mediator between the radical demands of a market economy and the church's interpretation of economic life.

Since language sharply mirrors our perceptions and mediates our action, it is interesting to note the results of a poll in which Poles were asked to pick the worst term from a list of words covering various negative deeds and situations. The word that received the most negative reaction: unemployment. Of the many costs of transformation, the fears and burdens connected to losing a job and acquiring the skills to find a new one are the most intense. Poles need more access to business education, more experience working inside Western companies, and more access to bank loans with low rates of interests (those which are generally available have rates of interests ranging between 40 and 60 percent per year). Such a strategy requires cooperation between the church and other nongovernmental institutions in Poland and abroad.

Halina Grzymala-Moszczynska teaches at the Institute for the Science of Religion at Jagiellonian University in C racow. She offered these remarks at a conference on Theology and Economics in the Postcommunist Era sponsored by the CENTURy and Christians Associated for Relations with Eastern Europe.

COPYRIGHT 1994 The Christian Century Foundation
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group