https://tomklingenstein.com/the-captive-mind-revisited/
Why are intellectuals — those whose thinking is supposed to be most refined — so susceptible to totalitarianism? From the Soviet Union to woke America, elite intellectuals have been among the most dedicated proponents of ideological systems totally opposed to the freedom of thought and conscience they should naturally espouse.
Ryszard Legutko revisits this question at the heart of Czesław Miłosz’s seminal book on the phenomenon among his own contemporaries (and himself). Alongside some interesting insights into Miłosz’s work, Legutko concludes that the totalitarian threat of the 21st century may be more subtle (and thus more dangerous) than that of the 20th — but that the sources of its downfall may be much the same.