 In his 1902 book Myśli nowoczesnego Polaka ( Thoughts of a Modern Pole ) , Dmowski denounced all forms of Polish Romantic nationalism and traditional Polish values . He sharply criticized the idea of Poland as a spiritual concept and as a cultural idea . Instead Dmowski argued that Poland was merely a physical entity that needed to be brought into existence through pragmatic bargaining and negotiating , not via what Dmowski considered to be pointless revolts – doomed to failure before they even began – against the partitioning powers . For Dmowski , what the Poles needed was a " healthy national egoism " that would not be guided by what Dmowski regarded as the unrealistic political principles of Christianity . In the same book , Dmowski blamed the fall of the old Commonwealth on its tradition of tolerance . While at first critical of Christianity , Dmowski viewed some sects of Christianity as beneficial to certain nations , through not necessarily Poland . Later in 1927 he revised this earlier view and renounced his criticism of Catholicism , seeing it as an essential part of the Polish identity . Dmowski saw all minorities as weakening agents within the nation that needed to be purged . 
