A Letter from Poland - Heresy and cancel culture

This week's Letter looks at the past and the present: What is the connection between the heresy (examined with the help of Leszek Kołakowski's fine radio talks) of the past and the cancel culture of the present? Is cancel culture present in Poland today? 

The burning of heretics before King Philip II of France. Illustration from illuminated manuscript "Grandes Chroniques de France". From the middle of the 15th century, by Jean Fouquet.

Image: Public domain/Wiki/Bibliothèque nationale de France

Heresy, salvation, cancellation

How similar are contemporary political controversies surrounding political correctness, wokeism and cancel culture to historical conflicts about dogma and heresy? Is cancel culture just a figment of the right's imagination - as the left would have it? Does cancel culture even exist in Poland?

This podcast also mentions Leszek Kołakowski's 1982 Radio Free Europe broadcasts on Heresy and finds them surprisingly relevant. 

Presented by Patrick Trompiz