And crowning it all the image of a face, a composite, it is easy to tell, of Hitler and Stalin. Mao, Idi Amin, Saddam Hussein, Quaddafi. A common man who might have the propensity to be uncommon. And he has a varicose ulcer, which is a form of gangrene, a form of decay. The world is all in decay.
Humanity is in decay.
The warning is there, very clearly for those who have eyes to see. All of it will rot away. And so it does. If any reader of the book dares to hope, it is hope based on futiity. It is a world in which people are watched at all times, like objects in a zoo or in a museum.