Dr. Dalrymple assesses a quote from a 1925 Stefan Zweig article critiquing the growing uniformity around the world in this week’s Takimag article.
Still, I know what he meant when he referred to an increasing need for sensation. I suffered it myself when I was young, seeking out danger when life seemed to me insufficiently interesting without it. I was fortunate enough to be able to satisfy my desire for sensation by being able to travel somewhat dangerously, but those who had not this good fortune had to find something else to satisfy them. Music has become louder, films more violent, sport more extreme and brutal.
We are all living in the Grand Budapest Hotel and sadly past its prime, which points to even more despair, as it was during the Nazi era. Maybe we need to laugh at ourselves before we move on