― Bertolt Brecht, Selected Poems“What is the robbing of a bank compared to the founding of a bank?”
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“The first time it was reported that our friends were being butchered there was a cry of horror. Then a hundred were butchered. But when a thousand were butchered and there was no end to the butchery, a blanket of silence spread.
When evil-doing comes like falling rain, nobody calls out "stop!"
When crimes begin to pile up they become invisible. When sufferings become unendurable the cries are no longer heard. The cries, too, fall like rain in summer.”
Monday, January 5, 2015
The Kynic
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4 comments:
Who was it who said something to this effect: "The murder of one man is an atrocity, the slaughter of hundreds of thousands a statistic?"
Isn;t that exactly what Brecht was driving at?
We grow accustomed to the Dark ––
When Light is put away ––
As when the Neighbor holds the Lamp
To witness her Good bye ––
A Moment –– We uncertain step
For newness of the night ––
Then –– fit our Vision to the Dark ––
And meet the Road –– erect ––
And so of larger –– Darknesses ––
Those Evenings of the Brain ––
When not a Moon disclose a sign ––
Or Star –– come out –– within ––
The Bravest –– grope a little ––
And sometimes hit a Tree
Directly in the Forehead ––
But as they learn to see ––
Either the Darkness alters ––
Or something in the sight
Adjusts itself to Midnight ––
And Life steps almost straight.
~ Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)
With Brecht, it could have signaled KrystalNacht and the beginnings of the Shoa in the German-Jewish communities.
In other words, Germany was once a democracy... until the 'fear' took over.
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