![]() ![]() “I have always shook with fright before human beings. From then on, however, I came to hold, almost as a philosophical conviction, the belief: What is society but an individual?” “Know thy particular fearsomeness, thy knavery, cunning and witchcraft!” What I said, however, as I wiped the perspiration from my face with a handkerchief was merely, “You’ve put me in a cold sweat!” I smiled. You’re going to do the ostracizing, aren’t you?’ Words, words of every kind went flitting through my head. ![]() It’s you, isn’t it?’ ‘Before you know it, you’ll be ostracized by society.’ ‘It’s not society. You’re the one who won’t stand for it - right?’ ‘If you do such a thing society will make you suffer for it’ ‘It’s not society. ‘Society won’t stand for it.’ ‘It’s not society. But I held the words back, reluctant to anger him. “What, I wondered, did he mean by “society”? The plural of human beings? Where was the substance of this thing called “society”? I had spent my whole life thinkng that society must certainly be something powerful, harsh and severe, but to hear Horiki talk made the words “Don’t you mean yourself?” come to the tip of my tongue. “Whenever I was asked what I wanted my first impulse was to answer "Nothing." The thought went through my mind that it didn't make any difference, that nothing was going to make me happy.” ![]()
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