The Captive Mind

Name: The Captive Mind
ISBN: 9780679728566

by Czesław Miłosz · first published 1990

10mentions

7recommended by

10HN commenters

2013–2022first – last mentioned

70% recommend30% neutral

Why HN recommends it

Nonfiction study by a Polish writer of intellectuals living under Soviet-style control, noted for its insight into how writers and thinkers accommodate power and into the pressures on independent thought.

Summarised by Claude from recommending comments

Politics & Society

The best known prose work by the winner of the 1980 Nobel Prize for Literature examines the moral and intellectual conflicts faced by men and women living under totalitarianism of the left or right.

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What Hacker News says

codyb · Nov 7, 2015 · Recommends

…akin to the universal basic income. The question becomes, does that just exist for Western societies or for the entire world? I didn't read the entire article but it struck me to point out that "The Captive Mind" by Czeslaw Milosz is extremely relevant here. While the USSR was no wonderful place to be, artists tended to be happy there, because even if they were forced to "art" in a particular sense, the USSR…
on “The Case Against the Universal Basic Income” ↗
taway_1212 · Jul 28, 2017 · Recommends

The title should be changed - it's about Czeslaw Milosz, not Oscar. BTW, anyone who wants to experience some true literary and intellectual bliss, try Czeslaw Milosz's books and essays ("Captive Mind", "Native Realm", "Visions from the San Francisco Bay" or many others). Even his biography is utterly fascinating - it feels like he has experienced more during his lifetime than a dozen of your typical…
on “At Home in Exile” ↗
yakubin · Nov 19, 2022 · Recommends

…than what was written in it. Tony Judt, Past Imperfect: French Intellectuals, 1944-1956 Tony Judt, The Burden of Responsibility: Blum, Camus, Aron, and the French Twentieth Century Czesław Miłosz, The Captive Mind Raymond Aron, The Opium of the Intellectuals Those books taught me that there are quite a few secular religions to be beware of, with all the associated dangers and indeed opium for the mind. They were…
on “Ask HN: Are there any books that changed your life during college or school?” ↗
lizelfman · Aug 29, 2013 · Recommends

I appreciate Stross too, he always reminds me of The Captive Mind by Czeslaw Milosz... "the writer's essential task – to look at the world from his own independent viewpoint, to tell the truth as he sees it, and so to keep watch and ward in the interest of society as…
on “Spy Kids” ↗
gnarbarian · Feb 26, 2021 · Recommends

…it's a propaganda outlet. We have smart minds doing their best to tell a particular story regardless of facts. Here is some good reading on the phenomena https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/145660.The_Captive_Mind
on “Anime is booming, so why are animators living in poverty?” ↗
grumblenum · Jul 16, 2021 · Recommends

Please read The Captive Mind for the version based on true events. Spoiler: the Poles discovered that a political movement with methods and motivations which should sound very familiar didn't turn out to be the good guys after all.
on “Google Drive bans distribution of “misleading content”” ↗
alienjr · May 27, 2018 · Recommends

…Friedman, "On Power" Bertrand de Jouvenel, "1984" by George Orwell, "The State" by Anthony de Jasay, "Sketched With the Quill" by Andrzej Bobkowski, "My Correct Views on Everything" by Leszek Kolakowski, "The Captive Mind" Czesław Miłosz, "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, "The House of the Dead" by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, "Conversations with an Executioner" by Kazimierz Moczarski, "Diary 1954"…
on “Ask HN: What's one book that changed your life?” ↗
h0mEDw · Jan 11, 2019 · Mentions

…relevant in societies back then; we're wise to not follow it now". But that's just skipping with extra steps. Edit: just to make sure it's clear - I'm very happy when such skipping happens. A quote from Captive Mind by Czeslaw Milosz: > When someone is honestly 55% right, that’s very good and there’s no use wrangling. And if someone is 60% right, it’s wonderful, it’s great luck, and let him thank God. But what’s…
Atwood · Jul 11, 2016 · Mentions

Global Brain -Bloom Captive Mind -Milosz Machines of Loving Grace -Markoff Station 11 -Mandell (fiction) Sapiens -Harari Revenant (do not remember author/fiction) Argonauts -Nelson
on “Ask HN: What books have you read in the first half of 2016?” ↗
dvfjsdhgfv · May 31, 2017 · Mentions

…even dream about reading his all works. Then, after 1989, his books were finally officially published - but at this point several of them were less relevant. For example one of his most famous works, The Captive Mind, had been written in 1951 - almost 40 years earlier, with clues and subtle references to some contemporary writers and situations. There was no way the readers of '89, especially more young ones, would…
on “Czeslaw Milosz's Battle for Truth” ↗