Free: Coming of Age at the End of History

by Lea Ypi

the more they learned about how the world worked, the more they discovered that religion was an illusion, something that the rich and powerful used to supply the poor with false hopes, promising them justice and happiness in another life.

To think that people deserve a different fate from the rest of nature was to be a slave to myth and dogma at the expense of science and reason. Science and reason were all that mattered.

In capitalism, people claimed to be free and equal, but this was only on paper because only the rich could take advantage of the rights available.

She stared at us in silence for a few minutes. Then, if it was winter, she would say: ‘What do you want here? Have you got any dollars? No. Then off you go. Close the door. It’s cold.’ If it was summer, she would say: ‘What do you want here? Have you got any dollars? No. Then off you go. Leave the door open. It’s hot.’

Tourists held Nikon cameras, intent on capturing our past greatness and our present misery, or our present greatness and the misery of our past, depending on their point of view.

That was the point, he explained, when he realized that ‘democracy’ was just another name for the violence of the state, a violence that for the most part remains an abstract threat only to materialize when the powerful risk losing their privileges.

I guess we’ll see what happens.’ What happened was that we had a lie-in.

They issued orders for their wife to remain indoors, or to stop meeting this friend or that. They always did it out of love, they said. In their minds, loving women and controlling them were virtually indistinguishable.

My father’s relationship to domestic chores was like that of a child to cabbage. He knew they were good for him but, in the end, they made him sick.

You should never wonder what the state could do for you, she thought, only what you could do to reduce your reliance on the state.

He had read somewhere that matters of reason and matters of faith could not be adjudicated using the same criteria.

Replicability was Vincent’s secret weapon; the impression of déjà vu he conveyed was like a magic power, a trick that helped him to domesticate all that was new, to reduce the foreign to familiar categories.

Van de Berg says they’ve done it in Bolivia. I’ve never been to Bolivia. These people don’t even know where Bolivia is. What does that even mean, they’ve done it in Bolivia – so what? Look at them. They’re not machines. They’re people. They have tears in their eyes, and sweat on their brows.

‘Don’t cry,’ Nini reproached. ‘Crying never helped anyone. If I had ever thought about crying, I wouldn’t be here. I would have thrown myself under a train, or joined my cousins in the mental asylum. Do something. Read another book. Learn a new language. Find some activity.’

The state, for her, could never be considered an owner of anything, only a criminal entity built on the violent appropriation of other people’s hard work.

I always thought that if there was going to be a war, I would be strong. I never thought I would just keep crying. It’s the waiting. The waiting strangles me.

He read out what we called the ‘exam theses’ with the gravity one would expect in ordinary circumstances.

They played ‘Hotel California’, as a finale, and as we packed our things to leave the hall we sang, ‘Welcome to the Hotel California! Such a lovely place, such a lovely face!’ with guns pointing at us. ‘I hate it,’ a girl in my class said when we were out of the door. ‘I hate this heat! Look what it’s done to my make-up, it’s all dripping on my face, like I’m some dead person covered in mud.’

He said that philosophers have only interpreted the world. The point is to change it.