Our angry age

It may seem strange that people who have already attained a position of power through violence invest so much time in justifying their plunder with words. But even plunderers are human beings whose violent ambitions must contend with the guilt that gnaws at them when they meet the eyes of their victims. And so a story must be told, one that raises ... See more

Other people are our obstacles. They are the force that we are up against. She felt this most strongly when in her lowest moods, that is, when furthest from Christ. Other people are our stumbling blocks and hurdles, our impediments and obstructions – they are sent to try us. And yet, left untried, left to our longed-for solitude – with no one to wi... See more

We mistake each other. Our whole social arrangement a series of mistakes and compromises. Shorthand for a mystery too large to be seen. If they knew what I knew they would feel as I do! Yet even once one had glimpsed behind the veil which separates people, as she had – how hard it proves to keep the lives of others in mind! Everything conspires aga... See more

What possesses people? Unhappiness, always. Happiness is otherwise occupied. It has an object on which to focus. It has daisies, it has snowdrifts. Unhappiness opens up the void, which then requires filling. With things like angry letters to The Times.

Politics turns into virtue what religions often see as a vice — the fact that we do not all think alike, that we have conflicting interests, that we see the world through different eyes. Politics knows what religion sometimes forgets, that the imposition of truth by force and the suppression of dissent by power is the end of freedom and a denial of... See more

I want to tell you that your oppression will not save you, that being a victim will not enlighten you, that it can just as easily deceive you.