500
PARTISAN REVIEW
the emigrants were the ones who had fled. For these young and
unreasonable ones it was significant that
not everyone had left.
The
activities and intentions of those who were abroad were lent credibil–
ity by those who had remained: scholars, writers, participants in the
student movement. Here, in Warsaw, Krakow, or Gdansk, you, by
your stand, lent meaning and credibility to those in New York or
Paris, in London or Stockholm; you gave the stamp of authenticity
to their activities, their books, and their declarations. In other
words, you, by your refusal to emigrate, gave meaning to those who
had chosen to do so. When it was publicly asked, "Did today's emi–
gration break their attachment to Poland when they got bitten?"
you, by your presence and by your stand, robbed such talk of its
meanmg.
But it was not only people instructed by officials who posed
such questions. For this reason their arguments should not be disre–
garded. One should continue to remind the young and unreasonable
of the values of emigration; but one should never forget how it can
be perceived. We must remember that , in societies that are enslaved
and broken up, emotions enjoy no small amount of popularity.
These emotions are the product of years of amassed frustration.
Frustration born from a failed life, a destroyed professional career,
an excess of moral compromises. All this can blossom into aggres–
sion against others, against those who were successful, who found
their place under the sun, who do not share our poverty, and who
are free from our humiliations.
If
the government apparatus exer–
cises some skill in manipulating these emotions, we sometimes
observe a phenomenon where aggression is displaced: the burden of
odium falls, not on the authorities, but on its opponents, most fre–
quently those who have emigrated.
These discoveries are not revelatory; nor are they optimistic or
uplifting. But they do, you must agree, realistically describe the
mechanism of human anger in this best of all possible worlds.
All this is worth keeping in mind when, today, again thanks to
the graciousness of the communist authorities, you are faced with
the question of emigrating.
Among the interned, this problem is the subject of animated
discussions-little wonder that this should be so. There was a time
when people like you and me had to look forward only to an execu–
tion squad or a sentence for espionage. Today it is said that we have
a choice: leave, or while away an indefinite time behind bars.
