“The pressure of an all-powerful totalitarian state creates an emotional tension in its citizens that determines their acts.”

—  Czeslaw Milosz , book The Captive Mind

The Captive Mind (1953)
Context: The pressure of an all-powerful totalitarian state creates an emotional tension in its citizens that determines their acts. When people are divided into "loyalists" and "criminals" a premium is placed on every type of conformist, coward, and hireling; whereas among the "criminals" one finds a singularly high percentage of people who are direct, sincere, and true to themselves.

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Czeslaw Milosz 106
Polish, poet, diplomat, prosaist, writer, and translator 1911–2004

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