AdamKadmon: Inteligence has nothing to do with education. Shakespeare ended education at 15 and he was exceptionally well educated for his time and age.
Really? So why do Kaczynski supporters point to him being better educated than Komorowski? 1jola made this very point the other day - and indeed, most Polish people think that education (or at least, a piece of paper that says "I am educated") is important.
Anyway, isn't it a bit unrealistic to expect some simple electrician to be of profound intelligence? What he said is actually not that stupid - while the GDR was bankrupt, it was still the richest Warsaw Pact country. If Gorbachev had told them to open the borders (on condition that they leave permanently) and replaced them with people from Poland - there still would have been the GDR today.
The fact that the GDR leadership didn't have support from Gorbachev was what sealed their fate, nothing else. If Gorbachev had been fully behind the regime, it wouldn't have gone anywhere. In fact, opening the borders for permanent emigration in exchange for a massive financial bailout from the FRG would have done wonders for the country economically.
Heck, look at 1989 - many of them just wanted to have the ability to travel to the West, not to live there!
|