"He thought politics .. brought out the worst in people and also 
brought to the surface the worst types in society. ... In Coetzee's 
eyes, we human beings will never abandon politics because politics is 
too convenient and too attractive as a theatre in which to give play 
to our baser emotions.  Baser emotions meaning hatred and rancour and 
spite and jealousy and bloodlust and so forth.  In other words, 
politics is a symptom or our fallen state. ... Nothing is worth 
fighting for because fighting only prolongs the cycle of aggression 
and retaliation."

J M Coetzee, Summertime, 2009, extracts from pages 228 - 230




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