| Poland was closest to west Slavic countries, but until recently, it's been culturally closer to east slavic/south slavic than to Western Europe. Rome has been nonexistent for centuries, but the foundations of cultures for most of Europe except the Slavic countries come from the interactions between Rome and the Germanic tribes. Roman tradition (Western Europe): Legal behavior is ethical behavior. Slavic/Polish: Laws and ethics are two different things. Roman: Behaving politely is paramount and one needs to maintain decorum. Positivity. Slavic: People express themselves plainly and openly; complaining, criticizing, negativity, and rudeness are okay if that's how people feel. Roman: Imperialism and cultural imperialism. One should help others by spreading their superior culture. Slavic: Acceptance, tolerance, and fitting in. Polish people adapt to cultures they go to, and for most of history, oppressed groups (like Jews) flocked to Poland for their (relative) tolerance. Etc. |