"Life is pain, life is fear and man is unhappy. Now all is pain and fear. Now man loves life because he loves pain and fear. And that's how he's been made. Now life is given in exchange for pain and fear, and that's the basis of the whole deception. Now man is still not what he should be. There will be a new man, happy and proud. Whoever doesn't care whether he lives or doesn't live, he will be the new man. Whoever conquers pain and fear, he himself will become God. And that other God will no longer be."
Thoughts? Is the model presented even viable? Or are we simply to take Kirillov (the character who says this) as delusional?
(taken from Besy (aka Demons/Devils/The Possessed..) by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, p. 128).
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