In a healthy, normal society, people can disagree with one another, even have diametrically opposing views, and this does not at all mean that they must hate one another. The Polish authorities, however, have made the division of Poles their primary task.
Interpretation
Disagreement does not necessitate hatred in a healthy society; division among people is often a sign of unhealthy governance.
The quote by Olga Tokarczuk emphasizes the importance of dialogue and tolerance in a healthy society, where individuals can hold opposing views without animosity. She contrasts this ideal with the actions of the Polish authorities, suggesting that their focus on division among people undermines social cohesion and mutual respect.
In practice
In a community meeting discussing differing opinions on local policies.
But the fact is we did have colonies in the east of Poland, we did have a slave economy there. But this is not common knowledge - or part of our national myth. It goes against the current romanticised view of the government, and much of the country, that Poles have always been victims, never oppressors.
My books are not 'political.' I don't make political demands. They actually describe life. But when we look at human life, politics creeps in everywhere.
I think that first-person narration is very characteristic of contemporary optics, in which the individual performs the role of subjective center of the world.
The world is a fabric we weave daily on the great looms of information, discussions, films, books, gossip, little anecdotes.
I first read Sigmund Freud's 'Beyond the Pleasure Principle' as a young girl, and it helped me to understand that there are thousands of possible ways to interpret our experience, that everything has a meaning, and that interpretation is the key to reality. This was the first step to becoming a writer.
Well-written novels make you more empathetic towards other people. You can identify with someone who isn't you. You can change your identity. A 14-year-old boy can become Anna Karenina. It is a miracle.
Now I no longer live in our clear, rational world; I live in the ancient nightmare world, the world of square roots of minus one.
My land is bare of chattering folk; / the clouds are low along the ridges, / and sweet's the air with curly smoke / from all my burning bridges.
Opinions are a private matter. The public has an interest only in judgments.
God doesn’t need to punish us. He just grants us a long enough life to punish ourselves.
Where the despair of loneliness and poverty haunts every hour, the optimism to embark on new projects cannot find a place to alight on the brain's cortex. Poverty itself is an enormous obstacle to an enlightened and enlightening - not to say healthy - old age.
Humankind can't stand too much reality.
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