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How we function in social reality is determined by various types of cognitive schemas. These concern people, social events and other phenomena. According to the concept offered by various postpositivist currents, including postmodernism, poststructuralism and critical theory, such schemata cannot be objective. The most important element of postmodern considerations is the discovery of the arbitrary nature of modernity. This means rejecting the Enlightenment belief in progress. Innovation, understood as modernity resulting from human reason, is illusory in the postmodern perspective. Innovation consists precisely in a rejection of the myth of the existence of some absolute, objective truths that constitute the social order. The world is textual, made up of many alternative narratives. Definitions, including legal definitions, are socially constructed. They arise from specific social conditions, at a particular stage of development of a particular group. The assumption made by postmodernists is that language, including professional language – such as the language of law or legal language – is neither neutral nor transparent. The innovative power of this language lies in its use of narratives that influence the functioning of social groups of varying degrees of complexity. It is therefore necessary, adopting a postmodern interpretation, to look at the text of legal language in a similar way as we look at other texts. That is, to see in the narrativity of this language structural similarities with other texts that constitute social reality.
How we function in social reality is determined by various types of cognitive schemas. These concern people, social events and other phenomena. According to the concept offered by various postpositivist currents, including postmodernism, poststructuralism and critical theory, such schemata cannot be objective. The most important element of postmodern considerations is the discovery of the arbitrary nature of modernity. This means rejecting the Enlightenment belief in progress. Innovation, understood as modernity resulting from human reason, is illusory in the postmodern perspective. Innovation consists precisely in a rejection of the myth of the existence of some absolute, objective truths that constitute the social order. The world is textual, made up of many alternative narratives. Definitions, including legal definitions, are socially constructed. They arise from specific social conditions, at a particular stage of development of a particular group. The assumption made by postmodernists is that language, including professional language – such as the language of law or legal language – is neither neutral nor transparent. The innovative power of this language lies in its use of narratives that influence the functioning of social groups of varying degrees of complexity. It is therefore necessary, adopting a postmodern interpretation, to look at the text of legal language in a similar way as we look at other texts. That is, to see in the narrativity of this language structural similarities with other texts that constitute social reality.
The article presents the development of the House of European History (HEH), a project of the European Parliament which opened in 2017, together with its overall reception, most specifically within Poland. The broader concerns of East Central European countries are examined on the basis of a report published by the Platform of European Memory and Conscience. Finally, the Polish debate on the institution is presented and its significance discussed. Of greatest concern for the commentators are the aspects of the exhibition that pertain to Poland and East Central Europe, especially during World War II and the Cold War. Although positive elements are recognized, such as the fact that in the section on totalitarian regimes Nazi and Stalinist crimes are comparable and the evils of Stalinism are present, Polish critics note the same is not true of communism itself. Some commentators suggest that the HEH exhibition demonstrates Poland lacks an effective historical politics to promote its narrative. An unusual turn in the debate occurred when an official from the European Parliament critiqued a review of the exhibition in a leading opinion-making newspaper demonstrating a paternalistic attitude. It has also been suggested that the lack of sensitivity toward Eastern European historical experience at the HEH exhibition could indicate a partial form of cultural imperialism of the center toward the periphery. At a minimum it demonstrates gross negligence toward a key part of European memory necessary for the union’s fuller self-understanding to further integration on an equal basis.
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