Stosunek do przyszłości na przykładzie „Pamiętników bezrobotnych” (lata 1999–2001)

Abstrakt

In this article we present an analysis of attitudes towards the future as they are presented in memoirs of unemployed persons, who participated a contest announced by Institute of Social Economy at Warsaw School of Economics by sending their memoirs of their experiences in the years 1999 to 2001. Our analysis encompasses such attitudes as wishes, planning, predicting, hope, dreams, fear of the future, pure endurance, and expectations of help. Our departure point is an observation that the future rarely becomes a topic of reflection in the entries submitted by the authors. The authors seek the explanation of this by analysing the cognitive, imaginary, emotional and social dimensions of the authors’ prospective attitudes, the will to survive and tendency for hope. Examination of the future through the eyes of those finding themselves in lasting difficult economic and social conditions sheds light on the nature of behaviour toward and attitudes to the future in general, demonstrating the most fragile and at the same time most essential elements of these behaviours and attitudes. In this way, this study constitutes a contribution to general philosophical reflections on the subject of the relationship of man to the future.