Denial of Responsibility

I have thought for a long time now that if, some day, the
increasing efficiency for the technique of destruction
nally causes our species to disappear from the earth, it will
not be cruelty that will be responsible for our extinction and
still less, of course, the indignation that cruelty awakens and
the reprisals and vengeance that it brings upon itself … but
the docility, the lack of responsibility of the modern man, his
base subservient acceptance of every common decree. The
horrors that we have seen, the still greater horrors we shall
presently see, are not signs that rebels, insubordinate,
untamable men are increasing in number throughout the
world, but rather that there is a constant increase in the
number of obedient, docile men.

—George Bernanos