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in their minds. Moreover, in a measure, anyone who is on their side
politically is a friend, anyone on the other side an enemy. The
cleavage
goes right down into families and divides them. (If I am not mistaken,
one could find similar remarks about similar circumstances in
Thucidides.)
So far I am in agreement with my informants.
 
 
 I also feel confident that the trend has been for the past year
in the direction that they describe. But when the question is made
quantita-
tive I feel myself, on the one hand, quite incompetent to make a
precise
estimate and, on the other hand, sceptical of the statements that were
made
to me. I am inclined to guess, however, that there are at least half as
many people definitively hostile to the government as my informants
thought.
In other words, I think it very safe indeed to say that more than
one-quarter of the German population are strongly and definitively
hostile to the present regime (in plain English they hate it) and that
the number of these people is increasing. Secondly, I am bound to say
that it seems to me unlikely that more than about one-third of the
population are strongly favorable, for othewise I think I should have
seen more signs of support of the government. Accordingly, I suspect
that the number of people who remain
relatively non-partisan is greater than I was told. My reasons for this
guess had better be indicated. Nearly everyone whom I saw has had the
old fashioned German higher education, and among them there is a
prevalent
tendency to an overintellectual attitude. Moreover, Germans are at
least
as emotional as other people and they have been subjected to violent
provocations to an emotional attitude for many years. I have the
feeling
that at least most of my informants are really incapable of imagining