the present period is one of those when everything that seems normally to constitute a reason for living dwindles away, when one must, in pain of sinking into confusion or apathy, call everything into question again. the triumph of authoritarian and nationalist movements should blast almost everywhere the hopes that well-meaning people had placed in democracy...we are living through a period bereft of a future. waiting for that which is to come is no longer a matter of hope, but of anguish.

simone weil