The Festival of Insignificance

We’ve known for a long time that it was no longer possible to overturn this world, nor reshape it, nor head off its dangerous headlong rush. There’s been only one possible resistance: to not take it seriously.

And think about the precise meaning of that term: a Narcissus is not proud. A proud man has disdain for other people, he undervalues them. The Narcissus overvalues them, because in every person's eyes he sees his own image, and wants to embellish it. So he takes nice care of all his mirrors.

People meet in the course of life, they talk together, they discuss, they quarrel, without realizing that they're talking to one another across a distance, each from an observation post standing in a different place in time.

The children laughing without knowing why - isn't that beautiful?

Of course, uniformity rules everywhere. But in this park it has a wider choice of uniforms. So you can hold on to the illusion of your own individuality.

But how to define the eroticism of a man (or an era) that sees female seductive power as centered in the middle of the body, in the navel?

Nós compreendemos há muito tempo que não era mais possível mudar este mundo, nem remodelá-lo, nem impedir sua infeliz trajetória para a frente. Havia uma única resistência possível: não levá-lo a sério. Mas constato que nossas gozações perderam seu poder.

El placer de la mistificación debía protegeros. Ésa fue de hecho nuestra estrategia, la de todos nosotros. Comprendimos desde hace mucho que ya no era posible subvertir el mundo, ni remodelarlo, ni detener su pobre huida hacia delante. Sólo había una resistencia posible: no tomarlo en serio.

We've known for a long time that it was no longer possible to overturn this world, nor reshape it, nor head off its dangerous headlong rush. There's been one possible resistance: to not take it seriously. But I think our jokes have lost their power...All you get out of it is weariness and boredom.