From C.S. Lewis “The World’s Last Night” makes me think of Stalin’s attempts to modernize and industrialize the former Soviet Union the thirty years he was supreme dictator. Seems other current governments have grandiose ideas for the future at the expense of their people they are meant to serve.
“Frantic administration of panaceas to the world is certainly discouraged by the reflection that ‘this present’ might be ‘the world’s last night’; sober work for the future, within the limits of ordinary morality and prudence, is not. For what comes is Judgement: happy are those whom it finds labouring in their vocations, laying good plans to deliver humanity a hundred years hence from some great evil. The curtain has indeed now fallen. Those pigs will never in fact be fed, the great campaign against White Slavery or Governmental Tyranny will never in fact proceed to victory. No matter: you were at your post when the Inspection came.”
