by Alfred Döblin
““[...N]ational glory became ever more pronounced and tawdry amid a dead and dying political life. The powers in the zones and state entities everywhere adopted the same methods, driven both by pressure to assert themselves, and by the devices around which they clustered: techniques of arousal, satiation, stuffing, overfeeding. Obesity consequent on castration, the affectation placidity benevolence and sweetness of eunuchy became fashionable: grotesque impotent impulse. They were spared the narcissism of the masses. Monitoring Committees went secretly among the people, but already even the austere ruling clans were drinking from the poison they served. The flow of inventions abated, people lived from what had been handed down, settled into the rights and duties assigned them.”
“[...N]ational glory became ever more pronounced and tawdry amid a dead and dying political life. The powers in the zones and state entities everywhere adopted the same methods, driven both by pressure to assert themselves, and by the devices around which they clustered: techniques of arousal, satiation, stuffing, overfeeding. Obesity consequent on castration, the affectation placidity benevolence and sweetness of eunuchy became fashionable: grotesque impotent impulse. They were spared the narcissism of the masses. Monitoring Committees went secretly among the people, but already even the austere ruling clans were drinking from the poison they served. The flow of inventions abated, people lived from what had been handed down, settled into the rights and duties assigned them.”
I picked this up simply because the plot of future technocrats attempting to colonize Greenland felt timely, but this is some of the best speculati...
