Abstract
Even in the free world, the Communist totalitarian society put in place by the Bolsheviks was long considered as a viable option. As shown by the Communist success in the free elections held in Czechoslovakia in 1948, the Stalinist system appealed to members of the free civilization, and not only to proletarians. In Captive Mind Czeslaw Milosz depicts the interests that educated people find in the Stalinist "political formula" through a metaphorical drug, the Murti-Bing pill.
However, he uses arguments in favor of the pill to express a no to subtle criticism of totalitarian systems. Milosz implies that philosophers, even though they gain consideration, end up disapproving of the Murti-Bing system, because it controls the expression of their thoughts. Philosophers were faced with the disappointing fact that, in any society, the freedom of expression diminishes as the power increases. However, the ability to express the limits of a system gives the hope for a better future.
