Ingrid Ellis’s Reviews > Darkness at Noon > Status Update

this remind u of anyone? “drill every sentence into the masses by vulgarization and endless repetition; what was presented as right must shine like gold, what was presented as wrong must be black as pitch; political statements had to be colored like gingerbread figures at a fair.”

recurring themes: does dignity come from resistance or acceptance? when it comes to sacrificing human lives, do ends justify the means? not related but it makes me think of the WWII torture that led to modern medicine advancements. worth it?

“History has taught us that often lies serve her better than the truth; for man is sluggish and has to be led through the desert for 40 years before each step in his development. And he has to be driven through the desert with threats and promises, by imaginary terrors and imaginary consolations, so that he should not sit down prematurely to rest and divert himself by worshiping golden calves.”

The horror which No. 1 ruminated, above all consisted in the possibility that he was in the right … There was no certainty, only the appeal to that mocking oracle they called History, who gave her sentence only when the jaws of the appealed had long since fallen to dust.