Jacob Mikanowski: evaluation

Transcript context

…I was in Poland last year, and I had the sense — this surprised me — that Poles right now are smiling a fair amount: maybe more, say, than Germans would be doing. Now, is that just 4 percent rate of growth for several decades? Or do you think my impression is incorrect, and people still are going around looking somewhat grumpy? I think you’re right. I think it’s growth plus the hegemonic West expanding, which is not necessarily a bad thing. But a certain set of cultural mores has crumbled, especially in the big — like in Warsaw. I remember how shocked I was when I had really good customer service in a café in maybe 2006, ’07, with the extra American “Would you like anything more with that?” I’m like, “What are you saying? Why are you talking to me?” The mores had started to shift. That old, confrontational, dour way of interacting had inflected, and now it’s really changed. Now there’s a new generation that seems much more Western, seems much more American. It’s visible in customer interactions, stores, fashion, and in how people even — facial expressions; eye contact’s a little more direct than it used to be, I think. I think of the Russian women I know: they would, say, be in their 50s largely. It’s surprising to me — or was originally — how many of them had their kids quite young. Maybe they were 20, 21. Might have even divorced shortly afterwards and then had kind of a second, real marriage. That pattern seems to have shifted. There’s much more marrying in the late 20s, which is more of a US, higher-education, Western European rhythm to childbearing — having children, then, in the early 30s. What caused that change, and why did they have kids so young to begin with?…

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