Politics and ethics belong to different worlds.
ADAM MICHNIKPolitics and ethics belong to different worlds.
ADAM MICHNIKFrance can never accept that it is no longer a dominating power in the world of culture. This is true both of the French right and the French left. They keep thinking that Americans are primitive cowboys or farmers who do not understand anything.
ADAM MICHNIKSometimes the type of person from the old machine, who is everything but an appealing figure, happens to win an election. But democracy applies to everyone, not just the noble and the clever.
ADAM MICHNIKAs a rule, dictatorships guarantee safe streets and terror of the doorbell. In democracy the streets may be unsafe after dark, but the most likely visitor in the early hours will be the milkman.
ADAM MICHNIKToday we reject the notion of equality between a regime that belongs to the democratic world – even if it is conservative and disagreeable – and a totalitarian dictatorship, whether its colors are black, red, or green.
ADAM MICHNIKI consider that 9/11 was the day when war was started against my own work and against myself.
ADAM MICHNIKAlthough there is a strong desire for freedom in the countries of Eastern Europe, there is no democratic tradition, so that the risk of anarchy and chaos continues to exist.
ADAM MICHNIKWe lack a political culture, a culture of compromise. We in Poland, as well as the Hungarians, have never learned this sort of thing.
ADAM MICHNIKWe still have politicians who strive for a different type of country: Kaczynski as well as Orbán in Hungary.
ADAM MICHNIKIn a democracy, the government is a reflection of society because people are elected.
ADAM MICHNIKThey want a gradual coup. If Orbán stayed in power in Hungary or if Kaczynski were to win an election in our country, it would be dangerous.
ADAM MICHNIKEven though we are not sure of the links, Iraq was one of the countries that did not lower its flags in mourning on 9/11.
ADAM MICHNIKThe main difference between the Prague Spring and the Velvet Revolution was that the former was mostly the work of Communist party members and others who wanted to bring about ‘socialism with a human face.’
ADAM MICHNIKStart doing the things you think should be done, and start being what you think society should become.
ADAM MICHNIKThe call to finally clean house is a propaganda tool of the right, which tolerates the leftists who it condemns.
ADAM MICHNIKAfter the fall of communism in Poland, we had a post-communist as president for two terms: Aleksander Kwasniewski. He was very good. He brought Poland into NATO and the European Union.
ADAM MICHNIK