Czesław Miłosz And The Cost Of Complying With Tyranny

Are the subjects of totalitarianism mindless drones? No, wrote the Polish poet who defected to France after working for a government in thrall to Stalin. Instead, people in totalitarian societies are practicing ketman. That talent, or ability to dissemble, “goes deeper than mere lying. Ketman reaches deeper into the soul than simple hypocrisy. Ketman deceives the deceiver, as much as the person being deceived.”