Empire as a context

"The rise of the fallen empires” was the topic of the special lecture held by Scott Lucas. He argued that we should perceive "an empire as a context”. Empire is a term that serves rather as an evasion than an explaination of the world order. Similarly, the percepetion of postwar world as a bipolar scene of conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union. In fact, this clash of empires is just a certain descriptive context that might be applied to the events. "Bipolar world order is a myth” – these have always been local concerns and conditions that pushed the people to action. Be it Polish Solidarity, the Arab Spring, protests in Turkey or Euromaidan in Ukraine – people went to the streets because of their own reasons immersed in local problems – not because one or another empire told them to do so. Eventually, empires might enter the conflict but their origins and, as result of that, their socio-political meaning is local. "Empires react to what happened on the ground but did not create it”. "Do not forget the individual!” Scott Lucas called the particiapnts of the debate referring to the topic of the previous panel and Krzysztof Markiel’s speech. "David should be us” he said. People should create networks and strengthen civil society in order to resist the empire that aims at erasing people and nations. "Goliath is a myth” but "without our efforts we will never find out whether it would be defeated by David”.