NEW POLISH WRITING
501
Your choice, then : prison or exile.
It
is interesting
to
consider
why, in a state that under normal conditions is difficult to leave , the
government apparatus offers this choice to people considered its ene–
mies.
It would seem that the calculations of the apparatus are simple.
The migration is supposed to break Solidarity within and render it
hateful in the eyes of society; it is supposed to reveal the moral weak–
ness of people who loudly clamored for" Poland to be Poland," and
proceeded after a few months to leave Poland for Canada. It will be
easy to oppose these people to the "healthy base," which will set
about creating a trade union cleansed of "politickers" from the
"Solidarity extreme."
The state apparatus wants to use Soviet models from the past
ten years, when creating the opportunity of emigration for the dissi–
dents undermined the democratic movement. The worker activist,
the opposition intellectual, so the official will reason, loses his weight
in the West. After a short time his attractiveness wanes, he becomes
a troublesome acquaintance, a burdensome frequenter of the wait–
ing rooms of various institutions, where people only think of ways to
get rid of him. He ceases to be an authority for the country, and
ceases at the same time to be listened to in the West.
You know the West, so you know that there is some truth in this
line of reasoning. Emigrants are set at variance with others, doomed
to rely on themselves alone, forgotten by the world....
The road from prison to emigration is also all too frequently a
journey from hell into nothingness. But this is not the point. Politi–
cally, each one of us, by deciding to emigrate, makes a present to
Jaruzelski, a present of his authority; he provides him with an excel–
lent argument against Solidarity; he facilitates for him the pacifica–
tion of society.
Andrzej Z. wrote from his internee's cell in a letter to his
interned friends: "We are a symbol of resistance for our society. Not
because we are so wonderful, but because the authorities, by depriv–
ing us of our freedom, have thrust this role upon us in their play
entitled 'The State of War'; it is a role we play, whether we will it or
no ." Thus-noblesse oblige. The chance of leaving, Andrzej Z. also
wrote, is given us not because that is the right of every citizen in this
country, but because we are perceived , rightly or not , as people who
are "trusted by society," and are therefore supposed, according to
the government's intentions, to prove ourselves unworthy of this
