Discussion about this post

User's avatar
Tessa Lena's avatar

My heart goes out to you. The fact that you are standing tall and speaking the truth so eloquently annoys them, but you shall win.

Expand full comment
Margaret Anna Alice's avatar

Calling this a Kafkaesque trial is by no means an exaggeration and is precisely why I interwove these excerpts from “The Trial” into my article about Sucharit Bhakdi’s own experience with the German injustice system (https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/p/profiles-in-courage-prof-dr-sucharit):

“Someone must have slandered Josef K., for one morning, without having done anything truly wrong, he was arrested.”

“‘When you are acquitted in this sense, it means the charge against you is dropped for the moment but continues to hover over you, and can be reinstated the moment an order comes from above.’”

—The priest

“‘There can be no doubt that behind all the pronouncements of this court, and in my case, behind the arrest and today’s inquiry, there exists an extensive organization. An organization that not only engages corrupt guards, inane inspectors, and examining magistrates who are at best mediocre, but that supports as well a system of judges of all ranks, including the highest, with their inevitable innumerable entourage of assistants, scribes, gendarmes, and other aides, perhaps even hangmen, I won’t shy away from the word. And the purpose of this extensive organization, gentlemen? It consists of arresting innocent people and introducing senseless proceedings against them, which for the most part, as in my case, go nowhere. Given the senselessness of the whole affair, how could the bureaucracy avoid becoming entirely corrupt?’”

—Josef K.

“‘… your guilt is assumed proved.’ ‘But I’m not guilty,’ said K. ‘It’s a mistake. How can any person in general be guilty? We’re all human after all, each and every one of us.’ ‘That’s right,’ said the priest, ‘but that’s how guilty people always talk.’”

—The priest and Josef K.

“‘The judgment isn’t simply delivered at some point; the proceedings gradually merge into the judgment.’”

—The priest

“What has happened to me is merely a single case and as such of no particular consequence, since I don’t take it very seriously, but it is typical of the proceedings being brought against many people. I speak for them, not for myself.”

—Josef K.

* * *

While Sucharit received a triumphant “Not Guilty” verdict, the prosecutor immediately appealed the decision, so the Kafkaesque trial drags on. (https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/i/133003377/candles-for-sucharit)

Expand full comment
205 more comments...

No posts