Letter to the Iranians

The letter included below was sent to about a dozen of Iranian university professors.
Note: I am perfectly aware of reports of human rights violations in Iran.

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January 24, 2014

Iran is a faraway country on another continent. It is a country different in so many ways from the place where we live. It is often portrayed in western media as a place, in which human rights and civil rights are frequently violated. We have no means to verify the accuracy of this kind of message.

In the past we used to believe most of what we have been told about Iran on the Polish and international news channels. Having no way to meet people and culture directly, we usually have to rely on intermediaries, whoever they are. We are absolutely defenseless to any misrepresentations and distortions they may insert into their stories about Iran.

This letter is an attempt to reach out through the barrier of prejudice, lies and stupidity. We are sending you the story of what our family has been through recently (my wife, our daughter and I).

Throughout the ages, when strangers met, they often exchanged their stories. It was some kind of a goodwill gesture and a sign of mutual respect. Telling the story to another person and listening in exchange to the other side's story was always crucial for human understanding. It was a foundation for building mutual trust and respect.

We do not expect anything in return from you. Of course, by telling the story we express desire to be heard. However, all we ask from you is to read the story. There are several messages in it. They may be of interest also to you.

We would like to bring to your attention some important issues that have been neglected in academic studies. The essence of this failure can be summarized as disappearance of critical thinking. It is as if entire areas of study became brain dead. No critical questions are asked. Reality does not agree with theories put forward by social and political scientists, but we do not hear anyone saying "sorry, we lied", or at least "sorry, we were wrong".

We state that the political and historical studies about the post-1945 East-Central Europe (and Communism in general) were significantly falsified. We are keenly aware about the seriousness of the claim. We are ready to provide plenty of evidence. Here is some.

This letter, with attachments, is mostly about experience of my wife, a pianist and piano teacher in Zielona Gora in western Poland. Some of our statements may seem pretty strong. However, the events we went through and the understanding of the Polish reality we gained in the process leave us no choice. So here it is.

We would like to inform the international community that fundamental human and civil rights are systematically violated in Poland. People standing up for truth and dignity are subjected to acute forms of psychological torture. These measures are based on the know-how of the former Communist secret services. The apparatus of the current Polish state functions as a de facto organized crime. This phenomenon should be thoroughly analyzed and dealt with accordingly.

Poland is not a democracy. Our country is some kind of a Stalinist republic where the constitution and the laws are only meaningless decorations, an element of deception. People in the power system of the postcommunist junta destroy our lives with full impunity.

The human rights community overlooked a very important and fundamental problem. The perpetrators refined their killing ways since human rights policies were first formulated. Their methods became more sophisticated. They also worked hard on improving their deception skills. These days the target of an assassination is the mind and the soul. The body may live on, unless the target commits suicide, but it is only an empty living shell, a biological object.

This continuity of killing, albeit with the transition of the killing method from the physical into the nonphysical, mental domain is the most frightening message.

Needless to say the whole Solidarity movement was organized and controlled by the Communist regime. Many people with good intentions joined but they had no influence. The Communists and their collaborators in the West created a false narrative in which the Communist regime fell under its own weight, defeated by a group of dissidents. This is complete nonsense.

Our family, including our daughter were attacked simultaneously. We were attacked in our workplaces and our daughter was attacked in her school. The methods used were typical of the Communist secret police. These were provocations designed to annihilate us psychologically, to destroy our professional lives, to destroy us as social personae, and finally to destroy us as a family.

One of us, LSB, knows these methods very well. Active measures were applied against his family during his childhood. He also experienced them later during his student years and in his academic professional life.

Enclosed are two documents:

(1) A letter in English dated 22 May 2013,

(2) Our release The Critical Mind and the Copernican Lesson. It focuses on Poland, but its significance is much broader.

The top Polish officials, including the prime minister and the president, were informed in great detail about the matter. They chose to remain silent, confirming their full approval of the terror.

This letter covers only part of the action of the Polish junta against our family.

A similar letter was sent recently to a number of US and European researchers, policy analysts, and members of European Parliament.