I admit that I don’t share many views that are publicly voiced nowadays. I don’t because I have always been thinking in practical terms and have been practical all my life. I have not been thinking about theoretical solutions. However, when I am convinced about something, I try to put it into practice. And today as I watch what is happening in Poland, in Europe and in the world, I see things differently than most politicians.

We are a generation of big disputes. And surely a generation whose life spans two different epochs: one which is over and another one that has only begun. We are slowly moving from the epoch of states, borders, confrontation and wars (especially in Europe) to the epoch of intellect, information and globalisation. These are still empty notions that need to be filled with substance, programmes and structures. And that is what the essence of our times and future boils down to.

If we define the crucial qualities well, then implementation will come easily. How do we set about this task? I remember meeting a German government delegation in Warsaw 20 years ago. That was when the Berlin Wall was already shaking. I told them: “The wall will go down in a moment. Are you prepared for that?” To this Genscher replied: “By the time that happens tall trees will grow on our graves”. Next day, the German visit to Poland had to be suspended because the Berlin Wall came down. These people then counted tanks, rockets, and railway wagons full of soldiers. “No, there is no chance this could happen”, they said.

Why mention it now? I want you to see that while in some conditions power, money, and rockets play a key role, at other times they do not. Genuine values are those that are general values. Power is vested in these general values. Nothing good can come out if we ignore these general values. A major dispute is on nowadays. Half of the world’s population is in favour of following the Western system and moral values based on free market and relegating spiritual matters, matters of God, to the private domain. That half of the world’s population intends to continue building the world accordingly. But the other half does not accept that and asserts that values need to lie at the foundation of everything that is being done, especially at the foundation of things that are essential. But there is a problem. For each country has generated slightly different values. And as we pray to our respective Gods that problem comes immediately to light.
Well, we need to agree on values. The charter of rights and freedoms should be turned into a charter of freedoms and values. This, I think, is possible. Then, in the old epoch we had to compete, we had to get an edge over someone else, we had to be wiser, we had to dominate and weaken our neighbours. Such was the case up to the end of the 20th century. That is over. But the question still remains: where are we hurrying to? What shall we be competing for? What shall we be planning for? Before things had to be as they were. But – politicians beware - they must be different from now on. Party and government policies should not be subordinated to rivalry. They have to be addressed to people, they have to serve and meet their interests. We don’t live long. Things need to be done that serve us all. When are we going to realise that? Unemployment was part of the previous concept. Yet how much work we have to do now, even if only to stop us from being late for work. To achieve this we need to pull down all our towns because they were built in line with a different idea. Red lights stop us every ten metres. Who came up with such an idea? Traffic has to be collision-free. That is not difficult to do. I have met people in Italy designing ecological towns in which all solutions are collision-free. Everything can be done, but in a different concept.

Somebody might say that we don’t have the money for that. Don’t? In the 20th century half of all the money in Europe was spent on armaments, pulling things down and then bringing them up again. If money is no longer wasted in this way, we would have 50% more resources to start with. However, let’s spend the money on what we really need, to meet genuine challenges, not on abstract things, not on vying against each other, but on carrying out programmes for the good of societies such as they are. And when the dispute is on whether we should take the former road forward to the West or perhaps say ”stop”, let’s at last think about people, whether are we doing everything that can be done for them?

The irony is that our generation brought to an end the gruesome times of war yet monuments are still put up to murderers. Shipyard workers in Gdańsk were the first to show how to fight and to win for a new future. However, we didn’t manage to bail them out when they fell victim to globalism. That must change. The new times we are in call for new thinking, different planning and ways things are done. The sooner we realise that, the better. Failing that, we are in for more crises. Will the present one be enough to make us build a new order or must we learn another lesson to start acting wisely?