“Those of us who live in a society where various political tendencies exist side by side and competing influences cancel or limit one another can manage more or less to escape the kitch inquisition: the individual can preserve his individuality; the artist can create unusual works. But whenever a single political movement corners power, we find ourselves in the realm of totalitarian kitsch.” (251)
A quick dictionary search shows that “kitsch” means “something of tawdry design, appearance, or content created to appeal to popular or undiscriminating taste”. In Milan Kundera’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being, kitsch is viewed from the perspective of Sabina and her point of view presents it very much as a disease, which wraps the masses in a kind of sentimentality that she considers corny. Sabina feels that this popular idealism forces people into embracing everything as positive, more or less taking away their ability to cope with real problems connected to life on Earth.
