Lunatics

 

“When I say that an obyvatel is more serious than a ‘tramp’ or a ‘lunatic,’ I mean by this that, accustomed to deal with real values, an obyvatel values the possibilities of the ‘ways’ and the possibilities of ‘liberation’ or ‘salvation’ better and quicker than a man who is accustomed all his life to a circle of imaginary values, imaginary interests, and imaginary possibilities.

 

“People who are not serious for the obyvatel are people who live by fantasies, chiefly by the fantasy that they are able to do something. The obyvatel knows that they only deceive people, promise them God knows what, and that actually they are simply arranging affairs for themselves--or they are lunatics, which is still worse, in other words they believe everything that people say.”

 

“To what category do politicians belong who speak contemptuously about ‘obyvatel,’ ‘obyvatels’ opinions,’ ‘obyvatels’ interests’?” someone asked.

 

“They are the worst kind of obyvatels,” said G., “that is, obyvatels without any positive redeeming features, or they are charlatans, lunatics, or knaves.”

 

 

 In Search of the Miraculous, P.D. Ouspensky, Paul H Crompton Ltd. 2004,  page 364