Milan Kundera on the relentless flow of news:
The bloody massacre in Bangladesh quickly covered over the memory of the Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia, the assassination of Allende drowned out the groans of Bangladesh, the war in the Sinai made people forget Allende, the Cambodian massacre made people forget Sinai, and so on and so forth until ultimately everyone lets everything be forgotten.
As quoted in Jonathan Glover’s book “Humanity: A Moral History of the Twentieth Century.” I had to get the book after reading Steven Pinker’s review but I kept forgetting about it. I finally found a copy in Kinokuniya recently and it’s been well worth the wait. I’ve only made it to the third chapter so far but each page has left an indelible impression.
