In recent days author Hans Fallada has been mentioned on this blog. His book ‘Alone in Berlin’ is a great insight into the Berlin of the Nazi era.
In ‘The Drinker‘ and ‘What Now, Little Man’, Fallada describes in an uncanny way some of the workings of the human mind and spirit. He cuts through so much humbug, nonsense and pretence, that his characters are impeccably real.
All the time the horror of the Nazi evil is lurking in the background but Fallada’s characters are real and alive today.
Clearly he sees the ‘little man’ with no chance when pitted against all-powerful authorities and institutions.
Anyone who is sceptical of authority and sees how the ‘little person’ can be and is enslaved by the horror and madness, the greed and jealousy of institutions and those who control them, then they will find hope and courage in Fallada.
Fallada sees the damage that is done to the ‘little person’ through the hands of all these all-conquering institutions.
We simply delude ourselves by thinking we have escaped from under the clutches of powerful institutions. Only stooges through all their various dancing and palaver attempt to give a respectable face to the cold cruel reality of institutions and authority.
And nothing changes.
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'The statement that "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing" is often attributed to Burke. Burke never said this but, in 1770, he wrote in Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents that "when bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall, one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle."'
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Even if the chances of achieving miniscule be ever so small, total resignation is not an option!
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