Mateusz Kosiński talks to Prof. dr. hab. Aleksander Nalaskowski, an esteemed member of the teaching staff at the Nicolaus Copernicus University.
Professor, recently LGBT circles set up provocations during celebrations marking the anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising in Poland. Rainbow flags with signs of Fighting Poland inscribed on them appeared in the vicinity of the sites where the anniversary was celebrated, while a leftist provocateur made obscene gestures on a balcony. Why are these so-called progressives trying to profane important anniversaries, places and symbols for patriots?
It is a struggle between cultures, one where symbols are the first targets. All wars, and we know this from historical records, abounded in symbolic gestures, such as winning the enemy's flag and throwing it under the feet of the victorious leader. It is a severe attack on symbols that contain the beliefs of a given community, the memory of a given community. Everything that these symbols mean is assaulted collectively. This strategy was not invented by the LGBT community. It is an old strategy, an extremely hostile one. Please note that we have seen such acts before - in 1940, the Germans forced a ceasefire and, in fact, the capitulation of the French in exactly the same railway car where the Germans signed their capitulation in 1918 in the First World War. The Germans also hung huge banners with swastikas on the largest buildings and edifices in occupied Poland with great pleasure. This is a long-standing strategy. It is nothing new. Religion and faith is a very important area for every community. This is an area of deep group identification. Thus symbols of faith are attacked. As they are the most sensitive. If these rainbow flags had been hung on an ordinary block of flats, no one, except perhaps the residents, would have rebelled because of this. That is what this war is about.
A few days before the anniversary, rainbow flags were also flown on numerous monuments in Warsaw. Is it right to liken this to the 'black lives matter' movement, which also attacks historical monuments?
It is exactly the same. Like adding a rainbow to Our Lady or the figure of Our Lady with the face of the transvestite Conchita Wurst, or attaching images of saints on portable toilets. It is part of the same strategy.
In Poland we are celebrating the anniversary of the victory in the Battle of Warsaw during the Polish-Bolshevik war in 1920. Do contemporary 'progressives' carry the same ideas that the Bolsheviks carried 100 years ago?
That is a very far-fetched comparison. As a professor, I cannot legitimise it by saying yes or no. The Bolsheviks assaulted with aggression, killing identity by taking people's lives. Let us not forget, too, that the Red Army was famous for raping, and this is a particular way of taking away dignity. The progressives are trying to kill our identity and the symbols that constitute our dignity. You cannot compare the two things.
But can one say that both contemporary 'progress' and Bolshevism want to destroy tradition, family and faith?
Yes, of course. Ideologies are jealous of each other, they fight one another, they do not tolerate each other. There is no ecumenism between ideologies. Ecumenism may hold contemporary world-views in terms of religion, but not in terms of ideology. All revolutions killed their enemies. Only today it is symbolic.
Is Central Eastern Europe today, as it was centuries ago, the greatest resistance to these forces? Can a moral counter-revolution break out around countries such as Poland and Hungary?
To say that this is about Central Eastern European countries in geographical terms is going too far. It is about Poland and Hungary. Let me remind you that the Czech Republic, for example, is a completely secularised country. Prague is the capital of pornography, which is being created there on a scale similar to that in Los Angeles, for example. In other countries, such as Romania or Bulgaria, the situation of religions and traditional values is not favourable either. However, things are indeed different in Poland and Hungary – religion and tradition play a significant role here. In fact, Poland and Hungary have had a common history since the Middle Ages, so it is no wonder that there is a community of thoughts and a kind of sympathy that sometimes takes the form of a brotherhood.
Can we expect further attacks on Poland and Hungary on the international scene?
Certainly. And I do not think neither Poland nor Hungary will give in faced with such a situation. These countries have gone too far in their stand, it has cost us too much to withdraw now and accept everything that Europe 'offers' us. The behaviour of Europe is a bit like a jealous question: "Why should you have it better than us?"
You are a valued scientist, recipient of a medal awarded by the Senate of Nicolaus Copernicus University in 2015. However, a dozen or so months ago, you began having problems at the university. Why?
Being a professor is not just about obtaining a degree, it is about promoting PhD candidates. To be a professor, you have to continue certain traditions. Learning consists of schools. This is not, of course, about schools in the institutional sense, but about schools of thought. Learning is not about being self-taught. One is a continuator, or even the fruit, of a school of thought. I treat this very seriously. My mission as a professor is to seek the truth about the world. I have the right, as a professor, which literally translates as "person who professes" or "teacher", to present the truth about the world, while at the same time presenting – because that is what science is all about – arguments, because it cannot be an emotional, ideological or intuitive truth. This must be a truth that stands up to questioning and is verifiable.
When the moral situation in Poland began to change dramatically and become rainbow-like, I took the floor as a professor of pedagogy, because this is important and responsible for educating the young generation. It has turned out that such a stand was not only unfashionable but also unacceptable. The university, but not only mine, has shown all its weakness, succumbing to the whims of an external organisation full of loud homosexuals. It complained about me. The Rector eagerly listened to it and decided to punish me. This was unprecedented. The university has always, for hundreds of years, been a fortress, because let not forget that universities are a tradition of almost a thousand years. This bastion has always defended the truth and those who seek it. Here, the university by itself had given up defending a man, a member of its community, who is seeking the truth.
But, as one of my colleagues said, most universities have long been stopped looking for the truth, and began looking for grants and opportunities for a comfortable life, foreign trips and those unfortunate parametric points. That was the reason for my ordeal. When political correctness, the silencing of loud opposition to certain ideologies, tries to successfully invade universities, when it is done on a large scale, it is difficult to talk about universality, about fidelity to the idea of universitas and, more broadly, about the university in general.
How important is the role of pop culture in introducing progressive ideologies? Because I have the impression that today it is hard to find a modern, western TV series that would be free of LGBT motives...
Pop culture is popular culture, often populist, which feeds on numbers. It is not an ambitious culture, where a film or literary work is successful when the cost of its production pays off, but it is a culture that lives off the masses. The mass recipient is the one we see on a daily basis, the one we call a lemming in Poland, for example. The most popular pop-culture productions are also an indicator of the intellectual state of a society. Pop culture is for them, and it must be packaged in a certain way, it has to have content that sells. The progressive nature of pop culture is due to its progressive or market character. Sales and viewing figures are what count. Let me remind you that demand and supply follow economic laws. Pop culture will say any foolishness, it will submit to any ideology because it does not stand guard over any values, it simply wants to sell itself well. And that is all there is to it.
Professor dr. hab. Aleksander Nalaskowski, teacher, founder of the Szkoła Laboratorium school which he run for 25 years; author of 26 books. He created and then, as Dean, for two terms of office, headed the Faculty of Pedagogical Sciences at the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń. Elected unanimously every time. Promoted 19 PhD students. Avid DIYer, horse breeder and rider.
interviewer: Mateusz Kosiński