The tradition of the oppressed teaches us that the "state of emergency" in which we live is not the exception but the rule. - Walter Benjamin

A curious paradox: people have only the narrowest private interest in mind when they act, yet they are at the same time more than ever determined in their behavior by the instincts of the mass. ... The diversity of individual goals is immaterial in face of the identity of the determining forces.

Besteht das Original nicht um dessentwillen, wie ließe sich dann die Übersetzung aus dieser Beziehung verstehen?

The nourishing fruit of the historically understood contains time as a precious but tasteless seed.