Posted by Declan on April 29, 2007, at 19:26:42
"There was a special form of the sickness--lethargy, plague, hypnotic trance or whatever one calls it--that affected all those who committed terrible deeds in the name of the 'New Era'. All the murderers, provocateurs and informers had one feature in common: it never occurred to them that one day their victims might rise up and speak. They also imagined that time had stopped--this, indeed, was the chief symptom of the sickness. We had, you see, been led to believe that in our country nothing would ever change again, and that it was now up to the rest of the world to follow our example and enter the 'New Era' after which all change would cease everywhere. And the people who accepted this doctrine worked sincerely for the greater good of the new morality which followed from a historical determinism taken to its extreme conclusion. They thought that everyone sent into the next world or to the camps had been eliminated once and for all. It never entered their heads that these ghosts might rise up and call their grave diggers to account. During the period of rehabilitations, therefore, they were utterly panick stricken. They thought that time had gone into reverse and that those they had dubbed 'camp dust' had suddenly once more taken on flesh and resumed their names. They were seized by terror.
.........Let time stand still. The stopping of time means peace and stability. They need it so much, the leaders of our age."
poster:Declan
thread:754516
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/poli/20070312/msgs/754516.html