“Evil that arises out of ordinary thinking and is committed by ordinary people is the norm, not the exception.”14”
― Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland
― Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland
“Major Trapp was never there. Instead he remained in Jozefow because he allegedly could not bear the sight. We men were upset about that and said we couldn't bear the sight either." Indeed, Trapp's distress was a secret to no one. At the marketplace one policeman remembered hearing Trapp say, "Oh God, why did I have to be given these orders," as he put his hand on his heart. Another policeman witnessed him at the schoolhouse. "Today, I can still see exactly before my eyes Major Trapp there in the room pacing back and forth with his hands behind his back. He said something like, 'Man, ... such jobs don't suit me. But orders are orders.' " Another man remembered vividly "how Trapp, finally alone in our room, sat on a stool and wept bitterly. The tears really flowed." Another also witnessed Trapp at his headquarters. "Major Trapp ran around excitedly and then suddenly stopped dead in front of me, stared and asked if I agreed with this. I looked him straight in the eye and said 'No, Herr Major!' He then began to run around again and wept like a child." The doctor's aide encountered Trapp weeping on the path from the marketplace to the forest and asked if he could help. "He answered me only to the effect that everything was very terrible." Concerning Jozefow, Trapp later confined to his driver, "If this Jewish business is ever avenged on earth, then have mercy on us Germans.”
― Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland
― Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland
“This is the essential lesson of politics: in the end ruling is the objective, not ruling well.”
― The Dictator's Handbook: Why Bad Behavior is Almost Always Good Politics
― The Dictator's Handbook: Why Bad Behavior is Almost Always Good Politics
“Sometimes a hypocrite is nothing more than a man in the process of changing.”
― Oathbringer
― Oathbringer
“I am most often irritated by those who attack the bishop but somehow fall for the securities analyst--those who exercise their skepticism against religion but not against economists, social scientists, and phony statisticians. Using the confirmation bias, these people will tell you that religion was horrible for mankind by counting deaths from the Inquisition and various religious wars. But they will not show you how many people were killed by nationalism, social science, and political theory under Stalin or during the Vietnam War. Even priests don't go to bishops when they feel ill: their first stop is the doctor's. But we stop by the offices of many pseudoscientists and "experts" without alternative. We no longer believe in papal infallibility; we seem to believe in the infallibility of the Nobel, though....”
― The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable
― The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable
Read A Song Of Ice And Fire 2016
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January 1st 2016, we began reading ASOIAF beginning with Game of Thrones. We spent 2 months on each book so that we would finish the released books of ...more
The Zerone Readers' Community
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A group for members of the Zerone Readers' Community to share and discuss books. ...more
Pratik’s 2025 Year in Books
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