Abstract

ExcerptCzesław Miłosz issues from an age and place when making a distinction between the ethos of a poet, an essayist, or a philosopher seemed an unnecessary and imprudent indiscretion. His resplendent work on political philosophy, The Captive Mind, is along with Albert Camus' The Rebel one of the most insightful, historically accurate, and devastating critiques of Marxism and its entrenchment in twentieth-century thought to date. As such, The Captive Mind is unrivalled by other “theoretical” and abstract treatises in its sheer ability to grasp the vital essence of political reality under totalitarian regimes. As a poet and an essayist, Miłosz's…