“But we don’t hear or see those who suffer: the real tragedies of life are enacted somewhere behind the scenes. Everything is calm and peaceful and the only protest comes from statistics-and they can’t talk. Figures show that so many went mad, so many bottles of vodka were emptied, so many children died of malnutrition. And clearly this kind of system is what people need. It is obvious the happy man feels contented only because the unhappy ones bear their burden without saying a word: if it weren’t for their silence, happiness would be quite impossible. It’s a kind of mass hypnoses.”
Anton Chekov, “Gooseberries”, 1898.
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