This disaster did not force us to abandon our ideal; on the contrary, from the very first months of the conflict, it led us to define precisely the conditions for its realization.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
You know one of the causes of modern despair is the fact that we have had proposed to us, from various quarters, an impossible perfection.
I think we lost a great deal of sympathy and support with the way in which the crisis was handled, most importantly I think when we appeared to be grasping for too much at one time instead of identifying our priorities in a much more responsible fashion.
To me, the idea that any kind of disaster helps create a nation seems a ridiculous one. There was no family in the house on the land next to me, and there might have been.
It is not a disaster to be unable to capture your ideal, but it is a disaster to have no ideal to capture.
I am above the weakness of seeking to establish a sequence of cause and effect, between the disaster and the atrocity.
It goes without saying that when survival is threatened, struggles erupt between peoples, and unfortunate wars between nations result.
Devastation could arise insidiously, rather than suddenly, through unsustainable pressure on energy supplies, food, water and other natural resources. Indeed, these pressures are the prime 'threats without enemies' that confront us.
One-third of our people were dangerously ill, getting worse hourly, and we felt sure of meeting the same fate, with death as our only prospect, which in such a country was much worse yet.
We are more disturbed by a calamity which threatens us than by one which has befallen us.
After a crisis we tell ourselves we understand why it happened and maintain the illusion that the world is understandable. In fact, we should accept the world is incomprehensible much of the time.
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