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...
-- William H. Gass. The Tunnel (1995) p.13.