[b]Barbara W. Tuchman
Pessimism is a primary source of passivity.[/b]
As well it should be.
History was finite and contained within comprehensible limits. It began with the Creation and was scheduled to end in a not indefinitely remote future with the Second Coming, which was the hope of afflicted mankind, followed by the Day of Judgment. Within that span, man was not subject to social or moral progress because his goal was the next world, not betterment in this. In this world he was assigned to ceaseless struggle against himself in which he might attain individual progress and even victory, but collective betterment would only come in the final union with God.
Yep, that’s what they tell us alright.
Preconceived, fixed notions can be more damaging than cannons.
Fortunately, here they are just ridiculous.
When at last it was over, the war had many diverse results and one dominant one transcending all others: disillusion.
Maybe we’ll have better luck with the next one.
The obverse of facile emotion in the 14th century was a general insensitivity to the spectacle of pain and death.
The good old days let’s call them.
Little attention was paid, because the German people, no matter how hungry, remained obedient.
Let’s decide: genes or memes?