For millions “the thought of the inevitable end, the ‘big sleep’, has helped to take the savour out of living… They feel it is all meaningless. We are here by accident. Any idea of purpose, of supernal design, has vanished… But nothing worth bothering about takes the place of that load of rubbish: they face a blank there. It is this state of mind that creates the legions of the apathetic, unresponsive to any reasonable appeal, only roused to action by the screams and commands of madmen. (We have already watched it happen)”.

[J. B. Priestley, Over the High Wall, 1972]