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Adding to diffuse fears in Poland over the rise in social inequality and insecurity associated with the refugee crisis, over terrorism and the potential threat of Vladimir Putin’s imperialist policies, is the low level of social confidence that arises in part from the vicissitudes of Poland’s history. Fear feeds on imagination, and it is on imagination that Poland’s political elite and its vassal media are building up their communication, as the government redoubles its efforts to reinvigorate the myth of Polish martyrdom. The PiS is well aware of the malleability of the collective memory, and is attempting to rewrite the nation’s history to rid it of the influence of liberalism and cosmopolitanism. Faced with this authoritarian and Eurosceptic policy shift, civil society organizations in Poland, such as the Geremek Foundation, have a crucial role: despite government obstruction, their ideas and actions act as a political counterweight and can therefore be much more effective than opposition parties in deconstructing the “scare stories” being churned out by the nationalist-populist powers that be.