“when the great intolerance of faith was lost, the secular robe of office had to supplant the sacred one, and society had to separate itself into secular hierarchies with secular uniforms and invest these with the absolute authority of a creed. And because, when the secular exalts itself as the absolute, the result is always romanticism, so the real and characteristic romanticism of that age was the cult of the uniform, which implied, as it were, a superterrestrial and supertemporal idea of uniform, an idea which did not really exist and yet was so powerful that it took hold of men far more completely than any secular vocation could, a non-existent and yet so potent idea that it transformed the man in uniform into the property of his uniform, and never into a professional man in the civilian sense; and this perhaps simply because the man who wears the uniform is content to feel that he is fulfilling the most essential function of his age and therefore guaranteeing the security of his own life.”
Quote by Hermann Broch
Book:The Sleepwalkers
Work
The Sleepwalkers
This book delves into the enigmatic world of sleepwalking, examining its psychological and philosophical implications through a narrative that intertwines the personal experiences of its characters with broader themes of human consciousness and the nature of reality. more
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“If America can go on breeding men like that, she will be a power in the world indeed.”
