Mid-Century

... Half a century of life has been traversed by civilized man, the man of the twentieth century, in which he has seen what he has seen of the means of civilization and comfort that science has offered, in the various fields of intellectual activity, to the man of this century.

And what the mind of man has offered, in half a generation, is truly a thing at which minds are bewildered, before which they stand dazed..

In half a century of time, the mind has opened new worlds, in the sky and on the earth, above the heavens and beneath the earth and in between. The mind has left no space uncrossed, no depths unpierced.. It has delivered to man the elements of nature, one and all, as servant and slave, all of them laboring for his happiness and his comfort... Thus has the mind done great things for the sake of man.

But in half a century of time, science has not managed to polish the essence of man himself: there has remained in him the spirit of the black forest, the spirit of the ravening beast with its fangs and claws. And in this half century, man has used his claws and his fangs a great deal — he has torn and trampled, and violated the sanctity of the noble spirit; and man has done nothing for the happiness of the spirit.

In half a century of time, the laws have been torn to shreds a hundred times and once more, and the simplest rights of man have been trampled — among them the right to survive and to enjoy life. And the individual had the right to ask those who starved him, killed him, and tormented him... why have you done all this to me?

And how long will your whips remain on my skin, your knives in my flesh, your heels on my back? How long? ...