Conrad Blog:

S on the Salvation of the World

Page 205, Testimony - finally nearing the end of this book. I have been working much lately hanging out as well, darn social life getting in the way of my reading. I try to fight it sometimes but then people get angry with me. People who make my life less fun. So i go. But here's a good excerpt:

Don't believe humanists, citizens, don't believe prophets, don't believe luminaries - they'll fool you for a penny. Do your won work, don't hurt people, try to help them. Don't try to save humanity all at once, try saving one person first. It's a lot harder. To help one person without harming another is very difficult. It's unbelievably difficult. That's where the temptation to save all of humanity comes from. And then, inevitably, along the way you discover that all humanity's happiness hinges on the destruction of a few hundred million people, that's all. A trifle.

Nothing but nonsense in the world, Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol once said. It's that nonsense that I try to depict.

And so forth. I think it speaks for itself rather well, however I have the benefit of a large amount of helpful context as well, so leave comments, please. There is also the obligatory connection to dad mentioned casually... which is something I felt far before I knew from Shostakovich's work.