The original context of this essay was the 50th anniversary of Norway's gaining its independence in 1905. We are now writing in the year of our Lord 1955, and thus it has been fifty years since 1905 and Norwegian national independence. We must be prepared for some kind of jubilee in the course of the next twelve months. For the other group, or more precisely for the rest of us, it plays a bigger role that there have been two so-called world wars.
Time goes so damned fast.
The first thing I really remember of the world was Hitler's coming to power, so my political awareness must therefore date back to 1933. I was then thirteen years old, and of course that's an unlucky number. During the years that followed all the positive materialism and optimism about progress went down the drain. We don't believe in much of anything anymore. The previous generation did our believing for us, and it didn't turn out very well.