“At the bottom of all this lies a vague stress: people are either nervous, anxious, irritated, or else they are apathetic. They look as if they expect to be hit from an unexpected quarter. Calm and certainty have been replaced by aggression.
It is the stress of people living under a constant threat. It is the stress of people compelled, every day, to deal with absurdity and nothingness.”
— Václav Havel, Stories and Totalitarianism