Where civilization entailed the corruption of barbarian virtues and the creation of dependent people, I decided, I was opposed to civilization. - J. M. Coetzee

Yet is it not the heart but the members of play that elevate us above the beasts: the fingers with which we touch the clavichord or the flute, the tongue with which we jest and lie and seduce. Lacking members of play, what is there left for beasts to do when they are bored but sleep?

If you have reservations about the system and want to change it, the democratic argument goes, do so within the system: put yourself forward as a candidate for political office, subject yourself to the scrutiny and the vote of fellow citizens. Democracy does not allow for politics outside the democratic system. In this sense, democracy is totalitarian.

Your stay in the camp was merely an allegory, if you know that word. It was an allegory — speaking at the highest level — of how scandalously, how outrageously a meaning can take up residence in a system without becoming a term in it.