The article shows (post)Sarmatism as an element of the Polish identity discourse in its community dimension, which mainly takes account of its civilisation and cultural aspect, defined by relations ...with (post)modernity. Although this discourse includes (post)Sarmatism in reflection on the key determinants of collective identity, such as community, Polishness and so on, it generally does so in a simplified manner, not free from prejudices and excessive bias. Liberal thought, which should have the greatest share in shaping the sphere of self-ideas of (post)modern society, shows a clear reluctance towards Sarmatian heritage, which is hardly surprising given its Enlightenment origin. However, one should understand the reasons for this reluctance, taking into account its stricter context, which is determined by the mechanism of programming Polish cultural projects in essentialist codes. Meanwhile, according to the author, the ‘post-mortem’ history of Sarmatism (nineteenth–twenty–first centuries) is part of the pan-European struggle of Tradition and modernity. When set on this plane, (post)Sarmatism can be considered in terms of lack (discontinuation of a specific tradition) and compensation (attempts to work through modernising deficits). The Sarmatian heritage, torn out of the vicious circle of stereotypes, myths and silences, should now be included in the debate on the foundations of Polish civic culture, because it belongs to the contingent (in the liberal sense) history of the Polish habitus, and it is also characterised by the syndrome of un-working (not being discussed in contexts important from the point of view of the struggle of Polish consciousness with what is broadly understood as modernity). It also needs to be made real by being located in the circle of geopolitical discourse. The perspective of the recontextualisation of Sarmatism, which neo-Sarmatism with its essentialist-nostalgic poetics has created in contemporary identity discourse and postcolonial thought with its binary schemas, seems insufficient.
The aim of the article is to show the weaknesses of the demoliberal paradigm resulting both from its internal, discursive conditions, as well as from its historical grounding together in the course ...of the cultural and civilizational evolution of Western societies (on the trajectory of premodern - modern - postmodernity) and in the structures of hegemonic and dependence relations between the West and the non-Western world. The issue under consideration appears to be important because the aforementioned weaknesses affect the development prospects of the demoliberal formation in the contemporary world, the specificity of which is in turn largely determined by the post-colonial status structure and the increasingly clear symptoms of the reconfiguration of the international system of power and dependencies. The basic internal contradiction of the demoliberal discourse is based on the contradictory implications of the idea of equality and freedom, the latter of which is dynamized by emancipatory tendencies that violate the ordering powers of an equality utopia. The noticed contradiction emphasizes the growing importance of identity politics in contemporary liberal democracies. The latter derives largely from the conflict of tradition and revolution, fundamental to the beginnings of modernity, the latter of which, as a social force and as a political and social project, is motivated by, among other things, democratic and liberal ideas. The entanglement of the democratic-liberal evolution in cultural contradictions and apories characteristic of the history of the Western world calls into question the universalism of the demoliberal paradigm. On the other hand, the conflict of utopias, both those under the sign of tradition and those under the sign of the revolution, is being relativized due to the emancipatory tendencies that destroy both them. The formal fulfilment of an equality and freedom utopia not only does not mitigate the aspirations for further emancipation, but also seems to be conducive to deepening the identity dilemmas of demoliberal societies. The particularization of identity discourses that takes place in this context threatens the social consensus around traditional demoliberal values. It also threatens the authority of the demoliberal formation, its coherence and credibility in the perception of different cultures, in relation to which the former plays an analogous role as it played at the dawn of Western European modernity in relation to tradition. The author sees a remedy for the crisis of cohesion and credibility of the demoliberal formation, among others in broadening the scope of inclusiveness by liberal culture of various identity policies, as well as in deepening the practices of deliberativeness responsible for social consensuality. Noticing the importance of the discursive and moral factor in the article does not obscure the influence of Realpolitik on contemporary liberal democracy. Real politics emphasizes the importance of the United States as the leader of the demoliberal camp, although it does not yet determine whether and how the American center of power will retain its stabilizing powers in the reality of a multipolar order. Due to the interdiscursive nature of the considerations, inevitable due to their subject matter, the article refers to a broader disciplinary background, including, apart from the above-mentioned postcolonial studies, e.g. philosophical anthropology, historiosophy, political theory and cultural criticism.
The article addresses the issue of the cultural characteristics of contemporary sport. The crucial questions posed in this context concern the perspective of the further existence of sport as a ...formation entangled in fundamental contradictions resulting from the mutual incompatibility of its praxeological and ideological-moral functions. Striving to neutralize or mitigate these contradictions, sport reveals its strong addiction to the logic of the market on the one hand, and on the other hand to the logic generated by the needs and dilemmas of contemporary culture.
The article is an attempt to look at the problem of colonialism of Galicia as a topic that has been masked by the myth of the region, which is too specific to describe it in terms of colonial ...dependency. This point of view is widespread also in postcolonial studies. The author of this article believes that the basis of this opinion is not literature, which is responsible for its strengthening, but the narratives of the former imperial Habsburg monarchy.
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