Truth has been dethroned. It has become chance. When we become sick to death witnessing polical campaigns that sell themselves agressively to the masses while mobilizing intellectuals considered respected and honest, but still speak full of passion and ignore slander and fake news then 'truth' seems to be tucked away somewhere. If we are lucky, we can find it.

Communism is Velutha. In Arundhati Roy's novel The God of Small Things, Velutha is a carpenter in a pickle factory in the town of Ayemenem in Kerala. He is an Untouchable. In the novel, he first appears fleetingly in the midst of a communist demonstration, waving a red flag. Then he disappears.

There has probably been a type of pill circulating in Indonesia over recent years, leading thousands of people to renounce their own reason. The tablet, as I recall, is Murti-Bing.

Brutal. Vile. Skilled at killing. Ambitious. Suspicious. The film Game of Thrones is full of such characters. It is hard to think of another film that depicts the tight link between politics and war more explicitly; people are always prepared to kill each other. The wager is total: win or die.