Pain

Passage:

Finally, war which has from time immemorial formed a part of apocalyptic visions, also offers imagination a wealth of material. Depictions of future clashes were popular well before the World War; and they again today make up a voluminous literature. The peculiar nature of this literature is rooted in the focus on total destruction; man grows accustomed to the sight of future expanses of ruin, where wholesale slaughter triumphs in endless domination. We are dealing here with something more than literary moods. This can be seen in the actual preventative measures already in full gear. A dark foreboding danger overshadows life, which is reflected in the way all civilized states are currently taking precautionary steps against chemical warfare. In this noteworthy history of the plague in London, Defoe describes how before the actual outbreak of the Black Death, alongside the renowned plague doctors, an army of magicians, quacks sectarians, and statisticians poured into the city as a vanguard of the infernal wind. Situations of this kind repeat themselves over and over again, for the eye of man naturally searches for spaces of shelter and safety at the sight of pain so inescapable and antithetical to his values. In sensing the uncertainty and vulnerability of life as a whole, man increasingly needs to turn his sights to a space removed from the unlimited rule prevailing power of pain.


Interpretation:

War brings a sense of excitement which is brought out if the war is won. They feels a sense of pride because now their possession is going to be expanded because of this outcome. But through this war people are looking for ways to escape the enviable. They now what eventually the outcome of war will lead to. Either death, defeat, or triumph. It speaks of how people prepare themselves mentally in times of distress. How they seek an outlook for what they feel is dooms day, or in this passage Black Death. It speaks of how people searched for an outlet trying to secure there safety. It also states that this mechanism of thinking is a continuing  cycle as to how people think and behave in a time of adversary. I choose this passage because