Tag: Czeslaw Milosz
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The Captive Mind, pt. 4
[part 1, part 2, part 3] In previous posts, we’ve seen the tremendous appeal of the totalitarian ideology to the intellectual as a means of overcoming social alienation and the terrific social pressure on doubters that ensues after the ideology has become ascendant. This ascendancy is unstable, however, because the totalitarian ideology is, ultimately, a lie.…
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The Captive Mind, pt. 3
[Part 1], [Part 2] In the previous two posts, we’ve explored the social alienation afflicting the intellectual and the allure of the newly ascendant totalitarian ideology as a means of overcoming that alienation. I think it’s important to note that this alienation is a very real and serious thing. We are social beings and to…
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The Captive Mind, pt. 2
When we last left the intellectual, he found himself increasingly drawn to the ruling ideology as a means of overcoming his alienation and general uselessness to the prevailing culture. In the new world of theory, the intellectual is not merely useful, but essential and superior. Alongside this attraction, Milosz identifies another form of alienation and…
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The Captive Mind, pt. 1
Over the summer, I helped teach a course on religious toleration. Of course, we read Locke, who takes as a major conceit of his argument the position that religious belief cannot be compelled by force. I took issue with this, as I do with a lot of Locke’s arguments.1 Primarily, I thought that Locke had…
Dan Yingst 