May 10. Reading Bill Gates, how he alternately justifies and apologizes for his favorite hobby, flying private jets. I am totally on his side, but the ethical bombardment in my head is enormous and has been going on for years. It’s a societal problem, not an individual one. We don’t need to do a little less of everything, we need to do a whole lot more.

And then there are those who slit their arm in some random spot – where it hurts a little, but not too much – and then think they are righteous. I’m giving up my job at I.G. Farben because it produces the poison gas for Auschwitz. But wouldn’t I then also have to emigrate from Germany? And would that erase anything? And are those who free Europe from the curse then actually less to blame?

Or the other way around: I fight in the army, but I refrain politely from participating in the firing squads. Or, because I was smart enough to realize this, it doesn’t matter anymore whether I join in the shooting, because there is nothing through which I can escape the guilt anyway.