The Socrealism

“Treatise on morals”

These are some of author’s thoughts about the philosophical attitudes prevailing in the post-war world. Milosz oposes the fashionable at that time existentialism as well as cinism and duplicity. What he proposes instead is values which can save the good in man. These are : “equilibrium of hear”, “sane mind” and the criticism towards the official doctrines.

In “The captive mind” Milosz tries to explain the fascination of the Polish intellectuals with the communism. This fascination led many of the Polish writers to abandon the truth and to give in to the reality of lie and despotism. He describes a sort of “ double-thinking”, which meant that many writers would officially join the slogans of the propaganda, while keeping deep down in their hearts their real thoughts and feelings. There are portraits of four Polish writers, who appear under pseudonyms: Alfa (Jerzy Andrzejewski), Beta (Tadeusz Borowski), Gamma (Jerzy Putrament) and Delta (Konstanty I. Galczynski). The lives of these people present the process of adaptation to the dogmas of “the new faith”.