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Encounters that Break Through the Horizon

“It is a civilian situation where there is no adequate ideal, there is nothing that goes beyond the utilitarian aspect–utilitarianism pursued without any ideal vanishing point. This cannot last. The fear is that endless conflicts may be set off.

“And yet, paradoxically, there are, cutting across the whole spectrum of positions, men who have a rare, hard-to-find sensibility. It is an occasional and transversal fact. Let us hope that these men may be able to give what they have. In that case, the damage could be stemmed, limited.

“Who knows if this desire to make life less difficult for one’s children, or for a given group of persons, may at some point break through the horizon. That is to say, if those who have this desire may come to understand that, in order to bring it about, they need an ideal, a hope. I think that this can be hoped. For example, certain aspects of Islam and Judaism are like this. When I was speaking of transversality, I was thinking above all of certain Jewish men and certain men of Islam, who seem closest to what we said before, to the sensibility that can break through the horizon.”