Steppenwolf

Charlie Rangel had clear sailing in the age we have yet to name. “When we’re talking about the horrors of the Middle Ages, for example; we must remember that these so-called ‘horrors’ are usually overblown. A man of the Middle Ages would find our modern age far more detestable, far more horrible and cruel, far more barbarous than his own. Every age, every culture, every custom and tradition has its own character, its own weakness and its own strength, its beauties and cruelties; it accepts certain sufferings as matters of course and puts up patiently with certain evils.

"Human life is reduced to real suffering - to hell - only when two ages, two cultures and religions overlap. A man of the classical age who had to live in medieval times would suffocate; just as a savage would in the midst of modernity.

"Now there are times when whole generations are caught on the cusp between two ages - between two modes of living - and thus lose a feeling for themselves, for what is self-evident… Charlie's habitual corruption for instance.

"Naturally, not everyone feels the turmoil of upheaval equally strongly, or even within the established framework of the age. A nature such as Nietzsche’s had to suffer his nation’s travail a generation in advance." Rangel, on the other hand, rode the wave comfortably all the way as it was cresting.
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Italics loosely translated from Hermann Hesse’s ’Steppenwolf’.

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