The Absolute at Large

Everyone has the best of feelings towards mankind in general, but not towards the individual man. We'll kill men, but we want to save mankind. And that isn't right, your Reverence. The world will be an evil place as long as people don't believe in other people.

It is a foible of our human nature that when we have an extremely unpleasant experience, it gives us a peculiar satisfaction if it is “the biggest” of its disagreeable kind that has happened since the world began. During a heat wave, for instance, we are very pleased if the papers announce that it is “the highest temperature reached since the year 1881,” and we feel a little resentment towards the year 1881 for having gone us one better. Or if our ears are frozen till all the skin peels off, it fills us with a certain happiness to learn that “it was the hardest frost recorded since 1786.” It is just the same with wars. The war in progress is either the most righteous or the bloodiest, or the most successful, or the longest, since such and such a time; any superlative whatever always affords us the proud satisfaction of having been through something extraordinary and record-breaking.

You know, the bigger the things a man believes in, the more fiercely he despises those who don't. And yet the greatest of all beliefs would be to believe in people.

I've had plenty of time to think things over up here in the mountains. I keep an eye on what's going on and I compare all the evidence. In fact I don't think about anything else. I don't know what it's all leading to, but one thing I'm sure of is that He doesn't have any kind of plan. He still doesn't have any idea what He's doing. Perhaps He hopes to do something big but He doesn't know how to go about it. Let me tell you, Bondy, all He is so far is a natural force. He's hopelessly informed about politics. He's a complete barbarian about economics. He should have taken over the Church, they do have some experience in ... Sometimes He seems to me just like a child.

Zato velim: ne oduzimajte tadašnjim ljudima njihov jedini ponos da je ono što su doživjeli bio Najveći rat! Mi dakako znamo da će ljudima za nekoliko desetaka godina poći za rukom da zapodjenu još veći rat; ta i u tom pravcu čovječanstvo napreduje sve više i više.

Leži to u našoj ljudskoj naravi da uvijek, kada doživimo nešto vrlo ružno, nalazimo naročito zadovoljstvo u tome ako je »to najveće« u spomenutom neugodnom području otkako svijet postoji. Tako na primjer, Udari li strahovita vrućina, bićemo zahvalni novinama ako jave da je to »najviša postignuta toplina od godine 1881«, a pritom još ćemo se malo i ljutiti na tu godinu 1881 što nas je nadmašila. Ili, ozebu li nam uši tako da nam se ljušte, obradovaćemo se nekako ako doznamo da je to bila »najoštrija zabilježena studen od godine 1786«. Slično je tome i s ratovima. Sadašnji je rat ili najpravedniji ili najkrvaviji, ili najuspješniji ili najdulji od toga i tega vremena; k a k v i m superlativom uvijek nam pruža neko oholo zadovoljstvo da proživljujemo nešto naročito i rekordno.