The body in the text being the body
politic.
Workers, both industrial and agricultural, were lionized and idolized
in communist times. With the implosion of communism, these frustrated
and angry rejects of a failed ideology spawned many grassroots
political movements, lately in Poland, in the form of "Self Defence".
Their envied and despised enemies are the well-educated, the
intellectuals, the self-proclaimed new elite, the foreigner, the
minority, the rich, and the remote bureaucrat in Brussels.
Like in the West, the hinterland tends to support the right. Orban's
Fidesz lost in Budapest in the recent elections - but scored big in
villages and farms throughout Hungary. Agrarian and peasant parties
abound in all three central European countries and often hold the
balance of power in coalition governments.
THE YOUNG and THE NEW versus THE TIRED and THE TRIED
The cult of youth in central Europe was an inevitable outcome of the
utter failure of older generations. The allure of the new and the
untried often prevailed over the certainty of the tried and failed.
Many senior politicians, managers, entrepreneurs and journalists across
this region are in their 20's or 30's.
Yet, the inexperienced temerity of the young has often led to voter
disillusionment and disenchantment.
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