Page 171 - Gabrijela Kišiček and Igor Ž. Žagar (eds.), What do we know about the world? Rhetorical and argumentative perspectives, Digital Library, Educational Research Institute, Ljubljana 2013
P. 171
rhetoric of crisis: polish parliamentarian
debates on the future of the eu 171
the ocean – such as America or Asia. Poland may be “a ship” which is
sailing “steadily” in “the rough seas”. Those are pretty standard descrip-
tions of the economic crisis, rough seas is a classic image presenting a dif-
ficult situation, uncertain, very challenging particularly as the speed and
accuracy of decision making is concerned.
Finally it can be said of the EU that we are “all in one boat. In this
boat we will either make it or we will all drown, and there is still a group
of candidates waiting in the wharf, many countries, not only Croatia,
but also the Western Balkans”. This picture serves the purpose of justi-
fying the sense of solidarity, which all Union countries displayed, and
which finds its expression in the financial assistance obligations. Those
examples prove the universality and the repetitiveness of political imag-
es in general. In research on the metaphors in German politics and me-
dia debates in the years 1989–1990 the words of similar meaning ranges
have been compared, i.e. to boat and ship. Used in metaphorical expres-
sions they evidently service different aspects of events. The ship appears
in references to complex economic projects, the reference is made to the
ship sailing in rough seas. While the boat is used in two contexts. First-
ly, as an illustration of the expression – “to be in one boat”, which means
the mutuality of interests, and the other one – that metaphor appears in
the reference to the newcomers – the country is like a boat; we have lim-
ited space and there may not be room for all (Zinken, 2006).
In Polish debates the image of a ship appeared in one more context:
Poland may be a ship but so could any other country, since the most im-
portant thing is that in “the captain’s bridge there stands” a leader of the
political party supported by the citizens. The topos of a ship has been de-
veloped through centuries in the European culture – at its early begin-
ning there is the Biblical Noah’s Ark, thanks to it humanity survived
the deluge, as well as the New Testament’s Peter’s boat, whose rumple
is firmly held by the succession of the popes. In the Renaissance liter-
ature there were frequent juxtapositions of the serene farmer’s life ver-
sus the dangerous and risk-laden life of a sailor, crossing the rough seas.
In the Polish literature the motif of a motherland as a mighty ship had
been extremely popular with the call for all hands on deck cooperating
for keeping its due course, while during the partitions and the loss of in-
dependence the image transforms into a vision of a sinking vessel. In
one of the discussed debates Prime Minister Tusk used that metaphor
as a means of political fight. “The leader of the opposition woke up and
shows courage in TV spots [...] You know what, president Kaczynski, I
‘ve seen many brave men in spots and ads [...] but the leader of the polit-
debates on the future of the eu 171
the ocean – such as America or Asia. Poland may be “a ship” which is
sailing “steadily” in “the rough seas”. Those are pretty standard descrip-
tions of the economic crisis, rough seas is a classic image presenting a dif-
ficult situation, uncertain, very challenging particularly as the speed and
accuracy of decision making is concerned.
Finally it can be said of the EU that we are “all in one boat. In this
boat we will either make it or we will all drown, and there is still a group
of candidates waiting in the wharf, many countries, not only Croatia,
but also the Western Balkans”. This picture serves the purpose of justi-
fying the sense of solidarity, which all Union countries displayed, and
which finds its expression in the financial assistance obligations. Those
examples prove the universality and the repetitiveness of political imag-
es in general. In research on the metaphors in German politics and me-
dia debates in the years 1989–1990 the words of similar meaning ranges
have been compared, i.e. to boat and ship. Used in metaphorical expres-
sions they evidently service different aspects of events. The ship appears
in references to complex economic projects, the reference is made to the
ship sailing in rough seas. While the boat is used in two contexts. First-
ly, as an illustration of the expression – “to be in one boat”, which means
the mutuality of interests, and the other one – that metaphor appears in
the reference to the newcomers – the country is like a boat; we have lim-
ited space and there may not be room for all (Zinken, 2006).
In Polish debates the image of a ship appeared in one more context:
Poland may be a ship but so could any other country, since the most im-
portant thing is that in “the captain’s bridge there stands” a leader of the
political party supported by the citizens. The topos of a ship has been de-
veloped through centuries in the European culture – at its early begin-
ning there is the Biblical Noah’s Ark, thanks to it humanity survived
the deluge, as well as the New Testament’s Peter’s boat, whose rumple
is firmly held by the succession of the popes. In the Renaissance liter-
ature there were frequent juxtapositions of the serene farmer’s life ver-
sus the dangerous and risk-laden life of a sailor, crossing the rough seas.
In the Polish literature the motif of a motherland as a mighty ship had
been extremely popular with the call for all hands on deck cooperating
for keeping its due course, while during the partitions and the loss of in-
dependence the image transforms into a vision of a sinking vessel. In
one of the discussed debates Prime Minister Tusk used that metaphor
as a means of political fight. “The leader of the opposition woke up and
shows courage in TV spots [...] You know what, president Kaczynski, I
‘ve seen many brave men in spots and ads [...] but the leader of the polit-
