Loai Salah

“Oh, maybe it started innocently,
with a joke, with coquetry, with amorous play, maybe, indeed, with an atom, but
this atom of lie penetrated their hearts, and they liked it. Then sensuality was
quickly born, sensuality generated jealousy, and jealousy - cruelty. . . Oh, I don’t
know, I don’t remember, but soon, very soon, the first blood was shed; they were
astonished and horrified, and began to part, to separate. Alliances appeared, but
against each other now. Rebukes, reproaches began. They knew shame, and shame
was made into a virtue. The notion of honor was born, and each alliance raised its
own banner. They began tormenting animals, and the animals withdrew from them
into the forests and became their enemies. There began the struggle for separation,
for isolation, for the personal, for mine and yours. They started speaking different
languages. They knew sorrow and came to love sorrow, they thirsted for suffering
and said that truth is attained only through suffering. Then science appeared
among them.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Dream of a Ridiculous Man