Over recent months I have been taking time to study a bit of Hermann Hesse, having read first Siddartha, followed by Journey to the East, Wanderer, a portion of Beneath the Wheel, and now Demian. Several of Hesse's themes seem to nest within me, and as I currently desire and aspire to have what I dream real communication and communion to be, the following passage from Demian struck a resonate chord within me.
"Genuine communion," said Demian, "is a beautiful thing. But what we see flourishing everywhere is nothing of the kind. The real spirit will come from knowledge that separate individuals have of one another and for a time it will transform the world. The community spirit at present is only a manifestation of the herd instinct. Men fly into each other's arms because they are afraid of each other -- the owners are for themselves, the workers for themselves, the scholars for themselves! And why are they afraid? You are only afraid if you are not in harmony with yourself. People are afraid because thhey have never owened up to themselves. A whole society composed of men afraid of the unknown within them! They all sense that the rules they live by are no longer valid, that they live according to archaic laws--neither their religion nor their mortality is in any way suited to the needs of the present. For a hundred years or more Europe has done nothing but study and build factories! They know exactly how many ouces of powder it takes to kill a man but they don't know how to pray to God, they don't even know how to be happy for a single contented hour."
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