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Worse, the Nazis turned the blitzkrieg soldiers into an army of supermen, plying them liberally with crystal meth—speed—in pill form, shipping thirty-five million tablets to their three million troops. This drug allowed soldiers to advance for days without sleep, dulled their sense of empathy, made them feel euphoric and invincible, and turned them into aggressive, reckless killing machines.
“Quantum-field theory tells us that even in the completely empty vacuum of space there is a seething froth of activity, as virtual particles pop into and out of existence, creating energy. This is called the zero-point field, and its existence has been proven experimentally. And the energy of the void, zero-point energy, exists everywhere. In the coldest reaches of interstellar space and in the empty spaces between atoms of your body.
It terrified me to realize just how easy it was for mass delusion to overtake large swaths of humanity. That just below the surface of human kindness was a seething pool of unfathomable ruthlessness and cruelty, unequaled in the animal kingdom.
“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” —Arthur C. Clarke
Then out spake brave Horatius, the captain of the gate: “To every man upon this Earth, death cometh soon or late. And how can man die better, than facing fearful odds. For the ashes of his fathers, and the temples of his gods.” —Thomas Babington Macaulay, Horatius at the Bridge
Hitler believed that the bigger the lie, the more audacious, the more likely it was to be believed. Because who’d imagine someone would have the nerve to spread such a colossal lie? And the more such a lie was repeated, the more likely it would be accepted as truth.”
“Fairy tales do not tell children that monsters exist. Children already know that monsters exist. Fairy tales tell children that monsters can be killed.” —G.K. Chesterton, (English writer and philosopher)
“Battle not with monsters, Lest ye become a monster. And if you gaze into the abyss, The abyss gazes back into you.” —Friedrich Nietzsche, German philosopher
