Berlin blood

Paris was shaken by enemy actions, the whole city, like the whole of France, resembled one large minefield, where it was easy to blow up. There was no need to prove why you were here: no one cared about you, the main thing was not to stand out from the crowd, and Moritz knew this very well, as did Francis, but the former was afraid to walk along the main streets. Julian walked through the streets and, looking at the Eiffel Tower, noted to himself that the spirit of the people could not be broken. Hitler took France and made it his part, forced people to suppress what they believed in, made them believe that he was the only ruler in the whole world, that he was omnipotent, but he could not do one thing: break the spirit of the people, break their charter and customs, to break the country’s internal clock, which has been running for a thousand years and has been formed for the same amount of time. He was never able to understand: you can take over a country, you can force people to believe what you want, but you cannot break generations that have seen a lot in their lifetime, you cannot break nations that are free and have lived for more than a millennium. After leaving prison, Julian looked at life differently: it seemed to pass by him and, without touching him, looked into the abyss into which he always thought of falling. In prison, everything is seen differently, there are its own rules and laws, everything goes differently, you seem to fall out of life. He heard that many people suffering from mental illness also feel lost in life. Hermits. Time and its speed, the way it moves, determines society. If you leave society, you will feel that everything lives according to its own laws, and the time according to which society lives is artificial. Each of the passersby drowns alone and fears this most of all. All the time we are told that you cannot stand out from society, you need to obey it, and it will protect you. You need to follow the laws and do everything that society prescribes. And it prescribes one thing: to be born, finish school, find a profession, learn it, get married, have children and live life just like that. And even during all the time society has given us, you cannot, for example, not learn one thing and discover yourself in some different crafts, try something new. No, you must spend as much time studying as prescribed by society. Find a mate and have children exactly at the time that society said, and nothing else. Otherwise, you will be considered different from everyone else, and this is a terrible punishment: the crowd does not like those who stand out, who do not follow the rules of movement on the prescribed road, who do not want to put up with the established rules and live according to their own. The crowd does not like those who pave their own path, even if it is difficult and uphill, and do not like those who strive for independence. He recalls one story about why people speak different languages. One day God saw how people were plotting evil against him and proclaiming themselves to be the gods of this Earth. Then God took and divided people all over the planet and made sure that they spoke different languages, and not a single language in the world was repeated, so that people could no longer understand each other, and therefore proclaim themselves gods. Julian sits down in one of the cafes and orders himself a black regular coffee, turns around and watches how individuals become a mass. A terrible sight. People dress and do their hair the same way, and all for the same reason — to prevent themselves from standing out from the crowd. But any person is a separate person, a separate system, a separate Universe. Why do people try to kill them? After all, the most beautiful thing was created precisely from the Universe that is inside a person, just as the most terrible thing was also created from it. Her ideas, her desires. And her unique gift. If a person has something to say to the world, he will always find a way to do it. Artists, writers, sculptors, musicians, engineers, fashion designers, poets, scientists, inventors, artists — these people move society and humanity as a whole, but why can’t we admit that such people are needed, why instead of thinking and looking at what a person does, we criticize and criticize, and then we admire and say how wrong we were? Maybe it’s not us who are being made stupid, but we ourselves are allowing ourselves to be made stupid? Maybe we ourselves are creating a society where there will be nothing but one person creating the future? But this is an overwhelming job, and he cannot do it alone. And Julian knew this from the example of his own country and situation. He looks around. Another uprising — just a little longer, and the Germans will not be able to restrain the people. He gets up, finishes his coffee in one gulp, pays and leaves. He heads to the hotel where he is staying and, taking his watch out of his pocket, looks at the time. It has arrived. Moritz will be here soon. We need to think things through carefully. He writes another false letter, sitting in his room and watching as clouds slowly come over France, and it begins to rain, hitting the roofs and sidewalks in huge drops. The man leans back on the bed, his soul uneasy. What will happen to him next, and is it worth returning at all? Maybe it would be better to put a bullet in the head after the death of Moritz and the report that the task was completed? He knew: nothing awaited him ahead, and he would simply remain in the photographs of those with whom he had previously been and spoken, with whom he had fought and shared food, bitterness and victory, if they had not died before. *** The second lost war. The world is shaking, what will happen next? Will future generations understand their mistakes and not repeat them? Unlikely: man is a creature with a short memory. And even books don’t help him with this. The world is changing. And people too. Rulers change, the attitude towards the past, from which the present is formed, changes, and the present, from which the future is formed, also changes. The human race is arrogant and selfish and will remain so until it reaches its end.