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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 31-Aug-05
Lech Walesa claims credit for European Union and unification of Germany

Web Log - August, 2005

Lech Walesa claims credit for European Union and unification of Germany

Saying that he had been "well prepared and decisive" 25 years ago, Lech Walesa told a BBC interviewer that, without him and his actions, the "European Union couldn't have expanded, the unification of Germany would not have been possible. And other countries wouldn't have got their freedom if the Poles had not broken the Soviet bear's teeth."

Lech Walesa was an electrician and union organizer in Poland who became an anti-communist organizer in the 1970s, when Poland was still under Soviet control. In August 1980 he led the Gdansk shipyard strike which, much to his surprise, gave rise to a wave of strikes over much of the country. Walesa called for a national strike, which he led, and forced the government to stand down.

Walesa won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983, and became the President of Poland from 1990 to 1995. He's viewed around the world as a hero, and many people do believe that it was his actions what led to the fall of the Berlin Wall, and then to the collapse of the Soviet empire.

However, it's a stretch to say that Walesa caused all these things to happen. Walesa is a good example of what I refer to as an "agent of change." When a change is due to come because of generational or technological trends, then very often there's an individual that triggers the change.

For example, if Thomas Edison had never been born, then the light bulb would have been invented by someone else at almost exactly the same time. If Martin Luther King had never been born, then someone else would have led the civil rights movement at the same time. Thus, Thomas Edison and Martin Luther King were "agents of change," but were not the "causes of change."

The same is true of Lech Walesa. Poland's last crisis war was World War II, and Poland's awakening period occurred beginning in the 60s and 70s, same as in America.

An awakening period is characterized by a "generation gap" which pits the coming-of-age younger generation against their war hero parents' generation. The period is characterized by little violence, or at most sporadic violence, but also by huge political battles, in the form of riots and demonstrations by the younger generation.

The awakening period usually climaxes with an "internal revolution," which results in some change, and which establishes which generation "wins" the awakening period. In America, the awakening period climaxed with President Richard Nixon's resignation in 1974, which established the younger generation as the winner; in China, the awakening period climaxed with the brutal massacre of the students at the 1989 Tiananmen Square demonstrations, establishing the older generation as a "winner."

In Poland, the awakening period climaxed with the August 1980 labor strike which forced the government to back down. Things always happen in their time. Lech Walesa was the agent of change, but the confrontation occurred because large masses of people across Poland were ready to force a change, and were looking for a way to do it. If Walesa hadn't been there, then the change would have happened anyway. (31-Aug-05) Permanent Link
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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 31-Aug-05 Lech Walesa claims credit for European Union and unification of Germany

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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 31-Aug-05
Lech Walesa claims credit for European Union and unification of Germany