LS Borkowski
Release 8, Poland, 1 February 2014
https://dx.doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.32749.90084
Disinform and Punish. Denial of Information Replaces Barbed Wire in Concentration Camp Poland
Denial of information and collective action against an individual and her family are the basic tools of the junta in Poland, an organizing principle of this peculiar form of state. Proper information is delivered only to junta members. Junta conduct collective attacks against everyone selected for social death.
Information is withheld from those targeted by junta. The simplest act of information delivery is transformed into a complicated, error-loaded affair. What should be a simple act of transferring a quantum of knowledge is deliberately made into a fuzzy, convoluted operation, loaded with deliberate mistakes and ambiguities. Information is rarely given in a simple, unequivocal manner. Additional, superfluous steps are inserted between the information source and the person who needs the information to function normally. A labyrinth instead of precise and direct point-to-point communication. This creates space for plethora of excuses when someone is trying to find out why information did not reach the destination or why it was distorted.
Public announcements are made in a characteristically vague, indeterminate manner. Often these announcements are used to further confound and increase the uncertainty as to what is true and what is false. Documents are either made inaccessible or difficult to obtain. And when a document is obtained, its authenticity is sometimes in doubt. In many cases the process of falsification of documents can be arbitrarily extended.
Participation in the information flow is a necessary condition for the human being to function as a member of any community. Denial of information makes people vulnerable to manipulation and provocation. The aim is to make targets feel helpless, unable to plan and execute their own actions, unable to control their own lives.
Denial of information is essentially an act of violence against the mind and the soul.
Junta makes the process of obtaining information very costly. If the targeted person is trying to establish facts or gain access to documents, junta uses this as an opportunity for further attacks and provocations. The aim is of course to stop the target from pursuing information, to make her fearful of another round of mental beating when trying to exercise basic rights. Punishment for pursuing information becomes the form of psychological torture.
Sensory deprivation, denial of information or information falsification were often used in communist prisons. Denial of information today is a straightforward extension of that prison scheme. The aim is to maximally extend the grey zone of uncertainty. This means that various stories and narratives can be twisted and altered ad infinitum, according to the current vector of the “revolutionary dynamics”, borrowing the phrase from Stanisław Mackiewicz’s book about Bolshevik Russia (Russian Minds in Fetters, George Allen & Unwin Ltd, 1932). A logical and intended consequence of information hiding and misrepresentation is the falsification of juridical processes.
The prison paradigm has evolved and is better masked today. However the concept of the prison guards and the prisoner remains at the basis of the state ruled by the junta. The watcher and the watched. The prison encompasses now the entire territory of the country. There are also simple ways to extend control beyond country borders. The target of the junta is meticulously surveyed and controlled. Junta gathers extremely detailed information about him or her.
Information deprivation is part of a bigger scheme of delivering social death to those who represent human values and fundamental rights. This is how postcommunist Poland works. The thugs and the slaves.
When dealing with the disinformation policy of the junta it is logical to assume that all public pronouncements are lies unless proven otherwise.
Małgorzata Głuchowska
Lech S. Borkowski
blogs: Decoding, Klient Nasz Pan