– We have hereby decided to bring the world to ruin! – jubil­a­tion broke out among the shad­ow-beings. Fig­ures of ill repute, twis­ted faces, a host of demons and gob­lins – since the world began, this is the only way any­one can ima­gine and por­tray the fig­ures of the under­world: hooves, fangs, shaggy pelts, sul­phur­ous breath. Yet those present here were refined, gen­teel beings, per­sons of dis­tinc­tion, ladies and gen­tle­men in eleg­ant attire. Like some glit­ter­ing recep­tion, with its required code of dress and con­duct, the chime of crys­tal glasses, cour­teous con­ver­sa­tion. But the decision had been made, a shady decision in shin­ing com­pany. The fate of the world was decreed, and there was an end to dreams, to ascent, to hopes. Thus began the his­tory of the world's decline.

– Let there be plenty, let there be com­fort! – came the call from the podi­um. The speak­er, an eld­erly gen­tle­man in finely tailored clothes, spoke in a meas­ured, quiet, delib­er­ate voice, like one who knows what he wants and moves with pro­found resolve towards his evil ends. – Com­fort will give birth to a lazy gen­er­a­tion, unfit to sur­vive. Yes, tri­als make people stronger, so let us give them com­fort, which every­one loves, but they will per­ish of it…

– Splen­did, splen­did! So be it! – rang out from the ranks of the audi­ence. Plenty, com­fort! – the slo­gan was mur­mured all around, in wry tones, amid laughter. It was as if they rejoiced at hav­ing found at last the most potent pois­on, one that could lay in ruins even a strong and healthy self-respect. But the speak­er went on:

– We must give them false ideals! We shall set before people mod­els who either seem glor­i­ous until all man­ner of treach­ery comes to light about them, or who work for ruin from the out­set, incor­ri­gibly. We can­not be lambs in wolves' cloth­ing!

– Yes, quite right! – came from all sides.

– We shall speak of the new order, of change, of equal­ity and free­dom! It appeals to every­one, but there is noth­ing in it. People like to hear about change, but they do not like to change. We shall be con­tent with a few token ges­tures that make more noise than dif­fer­ence. People's curi­os­ity and crav­ing will be sat­is­fied, but we shall not dis­turb their sense of com­fort.

Anoth­er sat­is­fied mur­mur, applause here and there, but they did not want to inter­rupt the address.

– With mater­i­al plenty we shall take pos­ses­sion of their bod­ies, which is easy. Com­fort is a great mas­ter, and for its sake they will be will­ing to do a great deal. Through com­mu­nic­a­tion we shall take pos­ses­sion of the word. We shall keep the magic power of the word for ourselves, and with words we shall hold people in check. They believe everything any­way… – the speak­er remarked, almost off the record, in passing, just to him­self. – And the most import­ant thing still ahead of us is to take pos­ses­sion of thought! Nor can we pass this ter­rit­ory by!

– Hear, hear, thought! – a cry of sup­port cracked out.

– We shall give them new myths. Even into every­day enter­tain­ment we shall slip mes­sages that seem spir­itu­al, and so devalue the import­ance of the search and make the quick res­ult easy to con­sume. The sham res­ult! – the speak­er said with emphas­is.

– We shall preach a spir­itu­al­ity of com­fort, we shall offer growth without sac­ri­fice! Well-groomed spir­itu­al­ity and honey-glazed delu­sion, and thus our suc­cess is guar­an­teed. With false mes­sages we shall infect the truth. Our pro­gramme: Wealth – without work! Pleas­ure – without con­science! Sci­ence – without human­ity! Know­ledge – without char­ac­ter! Polit­ics – without prin­ciples! Com­merce – without mor­al­ity! Wor­ship – without sac­ri­fice…

The audi­ence roared, and a storm of fren­zied applause broke out. The listen­ers rose to cel­eb­rate the pro­gramme, and answered it with acclaim that would not die down. The speak­er stepped down from the plat­form a little wear­ied, but with a face radi­ant with sat­is­fac­tion. He shook hands with one or anoth­er of the sup­port­ers who lined his way as he passed them. Yes, the fate of the world was decreed.