An Ocean of Repose

“That an anonymous person, with help from the press, day in and day out can speak however he pleases (even with respect to the intellectual, the ethical, the religious), things which he perhaps did not in the least have the courage to say personally in a particular situation; every time he opens up his gullet- one cannot call it a mouth- he can all at once address himself to thousands upon thousands; he can get ten thousand times ten thousand to repeat after him- and no one has to answer for it; in ancient times the relatively unrepentant crowd was the almighty, but now there is the absolutely unrepentant thing: No One, an anonymous person: the Author, an anonymous person: the Public, sometimes even anonymous subscribers, therefore: No One. No One! God in heaven, such states even call themselves ‘Christian states.’”

Søren Kierkegaard

On the Dedication to "That Single Individual"