This is only a translation of part of a large book in German by Karl Jaspers On Truth published in 1947. In my lifetime, Walter Arnold Kaufmann wrote a book on Tragedy and Philosophy that treats tragedy as a plot device Shakespeare used to present the kind of muddle that kept Hamlet from thinking the love of Ophelia was about to solve all the problems in Denmark. In an Introduction to the English translation of Tragedy Is Not Enough, Karl W. Deutsch writes about a sharp distinction between tragic reality and tragic pose (p. 10). The German idol in the age of Hitler and Goering rushes into action because he can no longer bear the burden of continuing responsibility. (p. 11). Jaspers wrote:
all others must be content
to be wiped out indifferently
in disaster. (p. 11).
But the reality of all this misery
without greatness is pushed aside
as unworthy of notice by minds
that are blind with exaltation. (p. 11).
A situation of financial panic is monetary swipe out for institutional thinking:
Wherever total lack of faith
seeks to parade as form,
it finds . . . a camouflage
for nothingness. (p. 12).
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