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   e n d    o f    (h i )s t o r y

--- R O G E R   W O L F E


translated by Mark Ostrowski

They say that it is one of the symptoms of the end of the century and the millennium. Beliefs, convictions, creeds and faiths of the most variegated and unusual stripe. Sects. Tribes. Clubs. Clans. Societies. Fraternities. A return to the obscurest and most primitive atavism before the purported imminent threat of the void. Fanaticism. Intolerance. Old and new ways to hide an ancient fear. There are those who are stricken by all of this. For others the phenomenon helps them to keep filling their mouths with trash on television or to ease the insomnia of the shiftless, retired and unemployed on talk-radio shows that go deep into the night. And then there are also those in the racket; those that know that nothing in this world is as lucrative as fear, and they exploit it. As far as I am concerned, let them get their rocks off. The grand total of all of our zealousness is equal to zero. But in any case it isn't such a bad idea that people lock themselves in with dogmas and shams like this. Let them lock themselves in wherever they please. Assuming that they toss the goddamn key far enough away from me and from any place around here.

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