I listened again today to a section of the Brother's Karamazov where Alyosha, falling asleep in the cell of his dead elder, dreams that he is at the site of Jesus's 'first miracle' -- the wedding at Cana. Alyosha marvels at how the Lord could walk amonst the poorest folk, knowing the pain he was on Earth to endure, yet still value their joy. Alyosha wakes crying tears of joy over the body of Father Zosima and vowing the love the world, to love human joy. Touching, right? Long live Karamazov! Long live the Karamazovian spirit that will never throw down the cup of life.

Had there not been a devil, it would have been necessary to invent him. Luckily we didn't have to.

Humanity is a machine. Each of us are like cogs, like levers. We all serve the machine, in at least one time and place. It is unavoidable. Even those who die very young or live in isolation modify the action of the machine. One can scarcely exist without doing so. The machince can be evinced in concepts of evolution, of culture, of psychology. Each of these, I think, captures only a small facet of the machine's action. I do not believe I could concieve of the goal of the machine, even if I had all the data. The cowardly and the brave, the wise and the foolish, the kind and the cruel, none of us are truely opposed. All these cogs are, at times, necessary in the machine. Just different parts, whose actions are defined more by their arrangements then their natures. I do not think myself above other men for my traits. I do not think that if all men were like me, all would be well. Even were I a good man, I would not think such. We are all necessary. Otherwise the machine would not have created us. And what is not necessary, the machine will prune at the appointed hour. I just want to fulfill my function. I will act as I am, and have faith in humanity. All will be well. What will we accomplish together?