Cruelty
Little by little, forgiveness will diminish.The longing for love will remain, but not the need.The restlessness of gaining, the pain of loss, will fall away.Anger will no longer be solitary; it will become organised.There will be an endless competition where peoplewill fight not merely to avoid defeatbut to prove their superiority.
Then cruelty will emerge.First it will enter the heart and not appear on the face.Then it will occur in the interpretation of scriptures,then history, then prophecies.Then it will become the people’s ideal.Lament will become meaningless.A second death will hold the tears born of the first.The neighbour will offer a weapon, not consolation.
Then cruelty will appear and no longer wound our soul.Then it will be visible upon the face as well.But it will no longer be recognised as separate.Everywhere, faces will look alike.Each, in their own way, will be practising cruelty,and each will take pride in it.
It will come like a culture.It will have no opponent.The only effort will be to make it more civilized,and more historical.
It will arrive like the shame of future history,and soak up all our compassion,all our adornments.
Most likely, this is how it will arrive.And for a long time, we may not even notice it has come.
Judgment by Objects
These days, nobodyadvertises human beings.No one says: Use me. I am human.But when I cross a street,or rest beneath a tree, or stop at a traffic light,a man comes rushing toward me and says,Come this way, let me show you an object.
I touch a human being.He keeps smiling.Suddenly, I hear a beep from inside him,revealing he is not human, but an object.
Then a machine identifies me,as if it knows my weight and counterweight.Objects alone judge me.They put all that is mine into two boxes.Only two boxes: black or white.They say: We always speak the truth.But you can lie. You are human.
And if we are lying, then surelyit is some human being’s lie.
