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Milosz's description of Socialist Realism serves as a template for understanding Zionist Realism

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"The Captive Mind" is the book written in the 20th Century that inadvertently and metaphorically best explains our present early 21st Century. It is interesting to note that the minds of hundreds of millions were recently controlled by the dialectic materialistic dictates of Socialist Realism. The Socialist Realism paradigm was dominant and then suddenly self-destructed under the weight of its corrupting lies. Such implosion represents a great beacon of hope regarding the current oppressive degrading paradigm of Zionist Realism. I doubt Czeslaw Milosz intended his book to be a guide to understanding the Zionist Realism paradigm under which the United States (and the World) currently suffers but he nevertheless provides great metaphorical guidance to an understanding of our current affliction. It is possible that "The Captive Mind" may eventually serve greater service to humankind as a liberating guide from Zionist Realism than it ever was for Socialist Realism. The parallels between Socialist Realism and Zionist Realism are astounding. Fictional Murti Bing is now revealed as non-fictional Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors with essentially the same political purpose. Ketman is still popular among journalists hiding in the cracks of their self-preserving lackluster reporting. Intellectuals (pseudo) at all universities are distinguished by their equal avoidance of addressing the obvious white elephants of high Zionist crimes. To read "The Captive Mind" is to commit a revolutionary act. It may be the equivalent of swallowing the metaphorical `red pill' or a good first step after doing so.

Essential

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This book is outstanding. It's one of the few books I really wish everyone was familiar with. I mean that. A lot of times if a book is really good, I sort of like that I've read it and other people haven't. It gives me sort of a shallow, self absorbed kick. This one is too good for that though. One word to the wise, this book is not simply about how bad communism is/was, though it adresses that in detail. It's also about how any form of totalitarianism, which squelches thre freedom of the human mind is totally awful. So the way to read this is not really to say, "hey look this proves that those leftists/rightists I've always hated are totally evil and screwed up." No, it's more to look at any absolutist ideology being peddled a little bit askance. Whether it's right wing radio, or left wing marches led by A.N.S.W.E.R. anyone who thinks they are right %100 of the time is probably a shady character. I didn't make that up, I got it from the quote he used in the front of the book. But I was too lazy to go downstairs and grab the book to get the exact quote. So there you have it. This book is incredible. I'm pretty confident you'll like it. Unless you're some kind of psycho (sorry If I'm hurting your feelings).

This will help you understand the real affect of communism on a country

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Without a doubt this book is one of historical perspective. The reason it is important, is that it was written in 1953, by a man who had seen how fascism, dictatorship, genocide, communism and stalinism does not just to people but to a society as a whole. Milosz lived in Poland between the two world wars, and watched how a nation that had been eliminated by three countries, one hundred and thirty years ago; can itself, become a war monger and a destroyer of 'other' cultures in the name of rebirth. He then saw another nation (Hitler's Germany) waste it's people and soul trying to prove that they were superior to everyone else. Lastly, he watched a nation, supposedly in the name of the 'people' destroy other nations and cultures in the name of those same people. Stalin said that the death of one man is a tragedy, the death of millions are just statistics. Stalin of course was a great maker of statistics. When the 'People's Democracies' were created in Eastern Europe after WWII, their stated objective was to create a classless society, for the enhancement of the proletariat. Unfortunely, not everyone wanted to be enhanced. But, under the theory that, it is better to imprison twenty innocent people than to miss one criminal, millions were killed, tortured, and dispossessed; in order to create a 'worker's paradise'. Milosz's stories are a warning to those that would collaborate in their own destruction.

Visions of the Utopian Ideal

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Looking at modern day people of the left, I often notice that they have a vision of their ideologies, whether socialist, feminist, multiculturalist, etc. etc. etc., that is utopian in nature and almost impenetrable to negative feedback about the actual consequences of their policies. Exactly what is it in the human psyche that allows some ideologies to hook into someone's consciousness with such tenacity? Czeslaw Milosz had the same questions in his day when communism was in the ascendancy on the world stage and appeared to have the winds of history at its back. He wrote THE CAPTIVE MIND in an attempt to address such issues by telling us the stories of several authors captured by the communist ideal. The result is a classic book still timely to the same issues today as we read of talented individuals willing to sell their talents, and alas their souls, over to an ideal of human perfection while justifying the trail of mass destruction and slaughter that came about instead. In one major way, I am disappointed with the book. One of the more powerful statements that I read about totalitarian ideologies of the past was that there were numerous people outside of the ideological circle screaming their heads off about what was going on. Yet there was some mechanism or mechanisms within the ideology itself which prevented such negative feedback from entering the loop. My own experience with ideologues has demonstrated this time and again. It is just breathtaking to hear the unbelievable verbal gymnastics and mental contortions used to maintain a belief in one's sytem. I was hoping that THE CAPTIVE MIND would explore the pschological infrastructure of the totalitarian mentality far more than it does. Well, I cannot have everything, I suppose. A reader should be aware that THE CAPTIVE MIND can be a tad difficult. Milosz often switches perspectives from his voice to others to hypotheticals and back again without clearly delineating the shifts. This can make a cursory reading ineffective and possibly even misleading. The book is not that hardgoing, so taking one's time is recommended.

Another peal to truth against totalitarian, war apologist confused

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"... This book speaks of the horrors of communism, a crime against humanity that killed tens of millions and a crime that many of the perpetrators still haven't been called to account for. Instead, we get "anti-war" rallies sponsored by these same butchers...." Woah. Obviously this reviewer cheers for libertarian ideology, but these lines really show the way the modern conservative movement has in effect mutated and desecrated the great ideas of classical liberals and libertarians. You must think that the current US foreign policy, militarism, and a national defense centralized in the pentagon protects Christian liberty from totalitarianism, right? And that common private individuals excercising their constitutional rights are unpatriotic stalinist terrorist liberty-haters? Right? In Bourne's words, "War is the HEALTH OF THE STATE (emphasis added)". The wars governments have waged are the very main inoculator for the expansion of centralized States. Especially in regards to the US, where anti-communism transformed the conservative movement into chickenhawk clones squawking for big government and BIG morality administered by Washington DC. It is the state which must draft civilians, or take their lives to fight for government in a war. Any enemy is suspect by the state, and always enough the very civilians in that government who dissent are some of the biggest "enemies" of the government in wartime, the "butcher" war veterans (who have actually seen service), little old ladies and average Americans. War engorges the government to naturally take away the rights of the citizenry. National defense brings with it suppresion of liberty. The above reviewer is with his neoconservative sympathizers apologizing for all totalitarians who wage violence against innocents by that very arrogant, paternalistic badgering against the hated anti-war protestors, some of which are the true conservatives and know what a society of liberty needs: peace (maybe some actual defense too, how about it, Dubya?) Now, to the actual book. A brilliant defense of liberal values from a nation of liberal thinkers, bravely through its history defending the best of the West for the East. Milosz and his dreamlike style should be best read in the original slavic for the full effect (like most foreign books), but its another anti-statist classic if its read in english anyway.