Devon’s Reviews > The Conspiracy Against the Human Race > Status Update

Ligotti quotes William James: "The normal process of life contains moments as bad as any of those which insane melancholy is filled with, moments in which radical evil gets its innings and takes its solid turn. The lunatic's visions of horror are all drawn from the material of daily fact. Our civilization is founded on the shambles, and every individual existence goes out in a lonely spasm of helpless agony."

So much pith 😏 "Optimism has always been an undeclared policy of human culture--one that grew out of our animal instincts to survive...rather than an articulated body of thought. It is the default condition of our blood and cannot be effectively questioned by our minds or put in grave doubt by our pains. This would explain why at any given time there are more cannibals than philosophical pessimists."