A Commonplace Book

Neither guilt nor innocence are ontological elements in history; they are merely ideological factors to which a skillful propaganda can seem to lend a causal force, and in that fashion furnish others--in disguise of their greed as it may be, their terror sometimes, pride possibly, remorse even, or, more often, surly resentment--a superficially plausible apologia for tomorrow's acts of robbery or cowardice, revenge, rape, or other criminalities already under way...