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‘Down there,’ he said, ‘are people who will follow any dragon, worship any god, ignore any iniquity. All out of a kind of humdrum, everyday badness. Not the really high, creative loathesomeness of the great sinners, but a sort of mass-produced darkness of the soul. Sin, you might say, without a trace of originality. They accept evil not because they say yes, but because they don’t say no.’
They avoided one another's faces for fear of what they might see mirrored there. Each man thought: one of the others is bound to say something soon, some protest and then I'll murmur agreement, not actually say anything, I'm not stupid as that, but definitely murmur very firmly, so that the others will be in no doubt that I thoroughly disapprove, because at a time like this it behooves all decent men to nearly stand up and be almost heard. But no-one said anything. The cowards, each man thought.
@CiaraNi One of the books that shaped me.
@masek Me too. I read it back in the late '80s and still reread it regularly. It is ever insightful and sadly, ever topical. Even more so right now, at this worrying moment in time.
@bursaar 'Something really earnest and affecting' - that's spot on. As is, alas, 'grim re-reading now' - it is too spot on at this moment in time.