Hesse as Individualist

Posted on October 23, 2007
Filed Under Language, Politics, Reading |

Via Wood s Lot, this thought from Hermann Hesse:

My instinct as an individualist and artist has always warned me most urgently against this capacity of men for becoming drunk on collective suffering, collective pride, collective hatred, and collective honour. When this morbid exaltation becomes perceptible in a room, a hall, a village, a city, or a country, I grow cold and distrustful; a shudder comes over me, for already, while most of my fellow men are still weeping with rapture and enthusiasm, still cheering and venting protestations of brotherhood, I see blood flowing and cities going up in flames.

Perhaps a good thing to keep in mind during Islamofascism Awareness Week.

Comments

One Response to “Hesse as Individualist”

  1. Robert Peake on October 24th, 2007 11:01 am

    This from a sensitive, intelligent writer who lived in Germany and Switzerland through both World Wars.