Identity

In lectures on constitutional law, I was surprised that the Polish Constitution of 1921 abolished the legal protection of noble coats of arms. I couldn’t understand why. After years, it seems to me that this event is an extraordinary stupidity in the history of Polish law. Rather, it was necessary to entitle the whole nation to use coats of arms according to a certain key. Instead of protecting their arms, they were condemned to banishment. I would not be surprised if an anthropologist explained that the coat of arms symbolism speaks of the spirituality of Poles much more than many historical books.

I don’t know if there was any Native American tribe in history who threw out their totems. I wonder how C. G. Jung – a tenacious symbol scholar – would diagnose a nation that throws its own symbolism out of the law bracket. The Law on Polish Citizenship passed after World War II did not recognize as Polish citizens all those who were forcibly handed soviet Russian passports during the war. After 500 years, Spain passed legislation that gives the possibility for descendants of Jews expelled from Spain to obtain Spanish citizenship in 1492. Is it possible to pass any legislation that can fix something in the history of Polish, even if the effect is symbolic. However, symbols are very important.