"The tradition of the oppressed teaches us that the ‘state of emergency’ in which we live is not the exception but the rule. We must attain to a conception of history that accords with this insight. Then we will clearly see that it is our task to bring about a real state of emergency, and this will improve our position in the struggle against fascism. One reason fascism has a chance is that, in the name of progress, its opponents treat it as a historical norm. –The current amazement that the things we are experiencing are 'still’ possible in the twentieth century is not philosophical.  This amazement is not the beginning of knowledge – unless it is the knowledge that the view of history which gives rise to is is untenable."
— Walter Benjamin, The Concept of History