Krzysztof Kieslowski is apparently a well-known Polish film director. Well, I'd never heard of him, until he was quoted in a very interesting little publication African Friends and Money Matters which I'm reading as research for doing a little article on African ESL students in Australia. 

Anyway, here's what he said in Newsweek in 1995. What do you make of it?

Question: "Is man more isolated in affluent Western countries than he was in Poland and the other Eastern-bloc countries under the Soviet empire?"

Answer: "Without a doubt. Because suffering unites people, while affluence and riches divide people. In our time, success is very fashionable. Strength is fashionable. And in order to be strong and successful, you have to throw away all of your scruples. And when you do this, you become alone, because you lose all your friends. Weakness is not fashionable. Compassion is not fashionable. yet these are the qualities that bring people together."