“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.”

—  Walter Benjamin

Source: One Way Street (1928), p. 451

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Walter Benjamin70
German literary critic, philosopher and social critic (1892… 1892–1940

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