The founding date of the People’s Republic of Poland (Polish acronym: PRL) was considered to be July 22, 1944, when the so-called Lublin Manifesto was issued. The PRL in its foundation and early years was a savage imposition of Soviet Communism on an unwilling Polish nation. Over a 100,000 Poles died resisting this imposition, during a vicious conflict that raged until 1949. However, the death of Stalin in 1953 led to an eventual liberalization of the regime in 1956, during the so-called Polish October. Wladyslaw […]
Tag: mark wegierski
Wegierski: On the 25th anniversary of the initial release of The Matrix (1999): Mark Wegierski recalls this brilliant science fiction film. On the 25th anniversary of the initial release of The Matrix (1999)
The Matrix (1999), directed by the Wachowski siblings, is possibly one of the most audacious and brilliantly rendered science fiction movies ever made. The master-premise of the movie is in some ways reminiscent of Plato’s Simile of the Cave, cleverly projected into a technological setting. In a highly dystopian future, human beings are artificially grown in massive numbers to provide electric power from their bodies to a race of Artificial Intelligence entities (AIs). The Matrix is the virtual reality construct they are tranquilized with, as […]
Wegierski: In Memoriam — Rt. Hon. Brian Mulroney, 1939-2024: Mark Wegierski looks at Mulroney’s main “right-wing” achievement
It had appeared, in the summer of 1987, that Brian Mulroney’s Progressive Conservative federal government was headed for one of the worst defeats in Canadian political history. In many of the 1986 and 1987 polls, the federal P.C. party stood at about a quarter of committed popular support, behind both the Liberals and the New Democratic Party (NDP), Canada’s social democrats. Indeed, the NDP had temporarily surged into first place. Despite the early hopes placed on him, and his overwhelming majority (won in 1984), Brian […]
Brian Mulroney (1939-2024) and the failure of Canadian conservatism in the 1980s: Mark Wegierski offers a sharp analysis of “the Mulroney years”
Brian Mulroney may be one of the most disappointing Prime Ministers Canada has ever had. As leader of the federal Progressive Conservative party, Mulroney at that time ostensibly represented the main focus of what could be called the “Centre-Right Opposition” in Canada. The use of the term “Centre-Right Opposition” is meant to suggest the perennial underdog status of that option in Canadian politics, especially after the federal election of 1963, when Liberal Lester B. Pearson defeated the staunch Tory, John Diefenbaker. As each successive decade […]
Wegierski: A quick glance at fashion, cosmetics, and cosmetology in Poland: In this whimsical piece, Mark Wegierski revives memories of a happier time in East-Central Europe, twenty years ago
These are memories of a happier time in East-Central Europe, twenty years ago. Poland is a country where the fashion sense and interest in cosmetology of many women is perhaps the third-highest in Europe (after France and Italy). Already during the later Communist era, it was said that women in Poland’s large cities would adopt the fashions of Paris a few days after their appearance in the West. Also, many Polish women tend to visit their “kosmetyczka” (cosmetician) at the beauty salon or aesthetics center […]
Wegierski: Thoughts out of season – the future of traditionalism
Author’s Introduction (2023): I would like to present to the readers a text whose initial drafts go back to around October 1985. Among the aspects of the text I have decided to maintain are considerable polemical and combative elements, because trying to excise them would lose a lot of the flavor of the writing. The text was written from a feeling of deep alienation and loneliness, at a time when Canada was definitely NOT sharing in the spirit of what was then called “the Reagan/Thatcher […]
Traditionalist social philosophy – a sketch of an idea: Mark Wegierski offers his thoughts on a synthesis of traditionalist philosophy
(The earliest drafts of this essay go back to the early 1980s.) This essay will endeavor to offer a short yet cogent definition of Western traditionalism (or conservatism). Surely, persons who are conservative-leaning should try to delineate and define what separates them from Communism, from Nazism and fascism, and from liberalism and left-liberalism, in all their myriad forms. A positive step would be to call all those persons who are traditionally-minded back to their first principles. Left-liberalism, liberalism, Communism, and Nazism can all be seen […]
Wegierski: “Inter-not” — Has a Canadian right-wing “blogosphere” had an impact on politics, society, and culture in Canada? – updated to 2023
Partially based on research done with Mike Krupa, M.A., for a paper accepted for the August 28-August 31 2014 American Political Science Association (APSA) Annual Meeting and Exhibition (110th APSA Annual Meeting)(Politics after the Digital Revolution) (Washington, D.C.), from which we had to withdraw because of unforeseen personal circumstances. The emergence of the Internet, where social, political, and cultural commentary could supposedly be freer of so-called “gatekeepers”, is said to have introduced a greater and more genuine pluralism of outlooks to societies. Considering that […]
Wegierski, Violence and the civilized society: Conformity and dissidence in different societies
Author’s Foreword (2023) The following essay arose out of a presentation to a ginger group the author belonged to at the time, which took place in Toronto, Ontario, Canada on December 16, 1988. The starting point of the discussion was the theme “Tories vs. Whigs”. These were rather unhappy times for the author. Before the Internet, living as a conservative and traditionalist in a megapolitan metropolis like Toronto, one often almost felt (as Orwell had put it) that the only things that belonged to you […]
Wegierski: A brief history of conservative publications in Canada – updated to 2023
A survey of conservative publications in Canada tells a sorry tale of short-lived efforts lacking the ideological coherence and material support necessary to make a significant impact. Any group of conservative writers and thinkers needs to be aware of the struggles of those who have gone before and to learn, if possible, from their mistakes. One of the most well-known quotations by Conrad Black concerns his promise (or threat) to establish a publication in Canada which would be a “National Review North.” Although Lord Black […]