Poland and its values
Subcultures
The word 'culture' suggests that there is a separate entity within the
larger society with which the larger society must contend. According to
Jordaan and Jordaan in Man in Context (1984), "a subculture group is a
social-cultural formation that exists as a sort of island or enclave within
the larger society". One definition of subculture is: "subcultures are
meaning systems, modes of expression or life styles developed by groups
in subordinate structural positions in
response
to
dominant
meaning
systems, and which reflect their
attempt
to
solve
structural
contradictions rising from the wider
societal context" (Michael Brake). For
Brake membership of a subculture
necessarily involves membership of a
class culture and the subculture may
be an extension of, or in opposition
to, the class culture. The significance
of subcultures for their participants is
that they offer a solution to structural
dislocations through the establishment of an achieved identity - the
selection of certain elements of style outside of those associated with the
ascribed identity offered by work, home, or school. He suggests that the
majority of youth pass through life without significant involvement in
deviant subcultures. He says that the role of youth culture involves
offering symbolic elements that are used by youth to construct an identity
outside the restraints of class and education.
Snejina Michailova, in Exploring Subcultural Specificity in Socialist and
Postsocialist Organisations, presents the following definitions of
subculture: (1) Subcultures are distinct clusters of understandings,
behaviors, and cultural forms that identify groups of people in the
organization. They differ noticeably from the common organizational
culture in which they are embedded, either intensifying its understandings
and practices or deviating from them" (Trice and Beyer). (2) Subculture
are a "...compromise solution between two contradictory needs: the need
to create and express autonomy and difference and the need to maintain
identifications to the culture within whose boundaries the subculture
develops" (Cohen)." Snejina adds: "Subcultures posses their own
meanings, their own way of coping with rules, accepted to be valid for the
organization, their own values structured in specific hierarchies, they
develop their own categorical language for classifying events around
them, they create their own symbolic order." A key element in subcultures
is sharedness - the sharing of a common set of perspectives.
In Poland we have quite a lot of subcultures. The big one and perhaps
better known (unfortunately) is very aggressive. Members of this group
wear usually sports wear, sports shoes and also tight jeans and leather
jackets. The clothes they wear is the reason they’re called ‘Dresiarze’
(‘dres’ in Polish means training outfit).
Dresiarze
Those people descend from poor families where often one of the parents is
an alcoholic, or from richer ones where parents aren’t educated at all and
they earn money the easy, not
always fair way. Youngsters from
the
‘normal
and
richer
households’ become members of
that subculture for fun. They just
don’t have proper examples and
in their families (for instance
parents do illegal business, etc.).
Problems connected with private
life of those young people make
them aggressive and rude. They become hooligans and vandals. Those
teenagers badly treated by life are able to represent only the worst human
characters. They often steal, rob, and beat innocent people they meet on
the streets. They tolerate only themselves.
The truth is that if you know some of them and they like you they treat
you equally and behave nicely and friendly. But in most cases they
estimate only the look of other people and if they don’t like it they become
aggressive and ill behaved.
Punks
Punk groups developed in
Poland in the late 70’s. they
like
good
fun,
enjoy
spending time together. For
an average person they look
a little funny with their dyed
hair and dirty worn-out
clothes. They have earrings
almost on every part of their
bodies like nose or eyebrow.
They listen to violent music, which is quite fast and strong. There are
many punk music groups in Poland.
Punks who live in Warsaw usually meet each other
in their few favourite places in the center of the
city. The place, which is famous for meetings of
young people, is Warsaw’s Old Town. Punks often
go to Agrykola and Pola Mokotowskie parks
because there are big concerts.
They are anti-materialistic and they come from
poor backgrounds. They don’t accept any rules of
average style of life and they usually don’t obey
the laws. They are rebellious. They smoke and drink alcohol. Most punks
use drugs, not only ‘soft’ but also ‘hard’. Many of them died because of
overdose.
Heavy metal
Heavy metal groups developed in our
country in the late 80’s. Like punks,
they like spending time together and
almost in the same places. They wear
black clothes and silver jewellery.
Usually girls have white faces with
black make-up and long hair, also
black. Boys look similar to girls. They
have long hair but not necessarily black
and they make up themselves when they go to a concert. They are
interested in the dark side of life but generally romantically.
These people listen to many kinds of
metal music (death metal, black metal,
heavy metal). There are some Polish
metal music groups. One of the most
famous ones is VADER but foreign
groups are more popular than our
music is.
Just like punks, but not so much, they
smoke, drink alcohol and use drugs.
There are many metals that are
pseudo-satanist. They kill animals like
black cats and rats and they say black mass. Satanism is the biggest
problem for heavy metal.
Skateboarding
This culture settled in Poland for good at the end
of the 80’s. It all started from fascination in the
American techniques of skateboarding and rollerskating. Now hip-hop music, graffiti and break
dance are an inseparable part of this culture but
break dance isn’t as popular as other parts of this
culture. As I said, everything started from
fascination in skateboarding. Earlier it was only an
amateur
sport
but
now
precursors
of
skateboarding in Poland have got their own
companies connected with their favourite sport
and they are sponsoring professional teams.
Beginners can practice in skate parks, which are
arising in Poland. The most popular type of
skateboarding is ‘street’, which is skateboarding in
town.
Most Polish skates listen to Hip-Hop music. Here in
Poland some of the groups have been playing Hip-Hop for about ten
years, but the most important are the last five years. The professional
level of Polish groups is improving all the time; they are recording CDs
and playing many concerts where you can see crowds of people.
One of the most appealing elements of this subculture is graffiti. In Poland
the real graffiti appeared towards the end of the 80s. The most important
place for Polish graffiti is MUR WYSCIGOWY in Warsaw (an almost 1.5-kmlong wall). This is the biggest object of this type in Europe. Its history
reaches to the year 1993 when the precursors of this art in Poland made a
few legal jobs (drawings) on it.
The most important cities for graffiti
are Warsaw and Szczecin, where the
best Polish groups, such as DNS, WC,
RA, EWC UOP, DSE, AX DOT, VHS,
JWP, ABS, B3S, WTK create Polish
graffiti style. We have got illegal pieces
(drawings) called ‘silvers’ here too. We
cannot forget about trains, which are
the
most
important
part
of
communication system for graffiti painters – in fact it is not easy to find a
clean and shining train.
Family
Public opinion poll results have for years consistently shown that of all the
values a successful family life is the most important to Poles. Poland has
one of the lowest divorce rates in Europe. This is certainly in part due to
the significance of religion in Poles' lives, but not only. All Poles value the
family more than money and professional status.
Talking to Poles on may easily get the impression that Polish families are
unusually large. Nothing could be further from the truth, however. One
should note that in everyday language
'sister' and 'brother' can mean
'cousin', and 'aunties' and 'uncles'
may be just family friends. The most
popular family model is the 2 + 2,
and according to precise statistics it is
now nearer 2 + 1.5.
Proportional to the fall in population is
the growth in the number of other
household dwellers ... four-legged
ones. It is hard to find a home today without a dog, cat, turtle, rabbit,
hamster, or at least white mice.
Interests
We are all living in the same global village now and Polish kids can
watch MTV or eat Big Mac in McDonald’s nowadays.
Before overcoming communism in Poland in 1989 we didn’t
have as many possibilities to develop our
interests. Getting new rock albums or watching
the latest movie hits wasn’t such an obvious
activity. Not all of us were lucky enough to see
James Bond’s adventures straight after being
released. Many of us heard funny stories from
our parents about recording music hits from
‘trójka’. Marek Niedziwiecki’s ‘Lista przebojów
trójki’ or Piotr Kaczkowski’s ‘Minimax’ were the
only broadcasts where you could hear western music. No one even
dreamed about listening to music in stereo. Mono spool tape recorders
had to do it. Of course some of us had friends in Britain, France or an
other democratic country who provided us with books, music and
magazines. Listening about all those bans in PRL can make you think that
Polish teenagers couldn’t have the same interests as guys in England.
Well, that’s only half true. Maybe collecting Matchboxes wasn’t possible
but, for example, we had our punks or football supporters. As we all
know, punks in capitalistic countries were fighting with the ‘system’. They
were against politic power, commercial way of life or unfair relations in
society. Here in Poland it was impossible to come out against spreading
McDonald’s restaurants or life based on consumption. Problems like these
didn’t exist in Poland in the ‘80’s when the punk movement was strongest.
But we had our ‘system’ and we were fighting for our freedom too. We
had our punk festival in Jarocin which has taken place ever since. Our
punk bands aren’t popular now like 10-15 years ago. Young people in
Poland more often listen to Iggy Pop or Sex Pistols than to Dezerter etc.
But now they’re becoming popular again. The ‘system’ has changed but it
still restricts people’s mental and physical freedom.
In early 90’s everything changed. Poland has become a free,
democratic country. Slogans saying ‘punk is dead’ or ‘rock is dead’ were
almost everywhere. Pop stars like Madonna or Michael Jackson were at
their peak. But the revolution was to come. In 1991 Nirvana released their
‘Nevermind’ album, which sold 14,000,000 copies. Rock bands all over the
world started to play grunge. Teenagers in almost every part of the world
went mad about Kurt Cubain and rock. In the same year, the British band
The Prodigy released their first album ‘Experience’. People started to listen
to electronic music, house, rave and eventually techno. This was
something totally new, music without band, lyrics and typical instruments.
Only DJ with his equipment: sampler, turntable etc. Love, music and fun;
perfect slogans for kids tired of thinking and fighting with anything. They
are looking only for something, which will allow them to move. They don’t
need music in conventional meaning. In order to have a better sensation,
they take ecstasy or LSD, not very popular among old rock players. The
techno culture came to Poland in middle 90’s. Although kids dressed like
‘aliens’ aren’t very popular in Poland. Many young techno fans don’t get
the idea of this culture and just copy the MTV pattern. Teenagers in
Poland quite often are wrong taking dance music as techno. There aren’t
many really good techno clubs here and people have very often
misunderstood the techno movement. They don’t have a chance to feel
the sense of it. But on the other hand, people in Poland are more
interested in industrial music. It’s not a culture or movement actually. I
can mention here only particular bands but not the philosophy. It’s a very
popular music style in the USA and other countries all over the world. I’m
talking about bands like Nine Inch Nails or TOOl. These two are very
popular among industrial fans and both come from USA. The latest TOOL
album achieved bigger commercial success here in Poland than in Britain.
Kids with TOOL t-shirts are very common in the streets. Unfortunately we
don’t have many rock festivals in Poland. It’s hard to satisfy a Polish
audience. We are too poor to organize big events. I think Polish teenagers
to often want to be just like American kids. We want to look like them and
act like them. But our reality differs from theirs and we have to create our
own style, not just copy patterns from MTV.
Talking about contemporary youth interests you can’t forget about
computers and the Internet. Now you can find a computer with access to
the Internet in almost every home. Playing computer games or writing email are activities as common as going to work or school. Some of us
spend hours every day in the virtual reality. Sometimes it’s just sitting at
home and playing computer games with the computer as the opponent.
But sometimes we compete with people all around the world. Many
teenagers write letters to each other in electronic form. The Internet gives
us the opportunity to have a chat with people from different parts of the
world. You can meet people with different hobbies and interests.
Sometimes it helps to find a friend; sometimes it’s just a way of spending
time. It’s also an unexplored world full of information.
Naturally teenagers don’t spend all their spare time listening to the
music or playing computer games. Poles like doing and watching sports.
We love football but rugby or cricket isn’t very popular in Poland.
These are the main youth interests in the last 20 years. Of
course teenagers have also other hobbies, for example: model making,
reading, writing, painting or web mastering. All of us have other interests.
But you can’t say that the youth likes reading books if suddenly millions of
them read Harry Potters adventures. It’s only a fashion and it’s variable.
Interests stay much longer.
Religion
95% of polish people are Roman Catholics (about 75% practicing)- some
of them are Eastern Orthodox or Protestant. Poland is very known to be a
religious country. That is why a lot of holidays are connected with catholic
religion.