B1056 <=> B1058 [BTG XLIII Beelzebub’s opinion of war, p. 1057]

“By the way, you have asked whether they really never ponder on this predisposition of theirs – phenomenally terrible and exclusively inherent in them alone.

“Of course they ponder, of course they see . . .

“A number of them do ponder even very often and, in spite of the automaticity of their Reason, they fully understand that this particularity of theirs, namely, their predisposition to periodic reciprocal destruction is such an unimaginable horror and such a hideousness that no name can even be found for it.

“Yet, unfortunately, from this pondering of these three-brained beings there, no sense at all is ever obtained.

“And no sense is ever obtained, partly because only isolated beings there ponder over this matter, and partly thanks to the absence there, as is usual, of one common-planetary organization for a single line of action; and therefore, if even the mentioned isolated beings ponder over this question and constate something sensible about this horror, then this constating of theirs is never widely spread and fails to penetrate into the consciousness of other beings. And in addition, it is very sad about this ‘sincere pondering’ of the beings upon similar questions. I must tell you that thanks to the abnormally established conditions of being-existence there, the ‘waking psyche’ as it is expressed there, of each one of them gradually becomes from the very beginning of responsible existence such that he can ‘think sincerely’ and see things in the true light exclusively only if his stomach is so full of first being-food that it is impossible for what are called ‘wandering nerves’ in it to move, or, as they themselves say, he is ‘stuffed quite full’; and besides, all his needs already inherent in him which are unbecoming to three-brained beings and which had become the dominant factors for the whole of his presence, are fully satisfied, of course, only for that given moment.