It was a small moment, but it felt like a scene: three men in green, and suddenly a walk turns into a seminar.<\/p>\n
\u201cLook,\u201d said Dr. AuDHS, and he did not point at the grounds, not at the mountains, but at the grass itself, as if the grass were the actual text. \u201cThe donkey is not stupid. That is important. The donkey is\u2026\u201d He searched for a word that is not moral. \u201c\u2026purposeful. He does not want discourse. He wants a situation in which he is right.\u201d<\/p>\n
Morgenstern snorted.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is stupid,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo,\u201d said Dr. AuDHS. \u201cIt is efficient. The stupid one is the one who believes that every argument is about truth.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hans Castorp thought of Settembrini and Naphta, of endless debates, of concepts that were used like weapons. Back then it was not always about truth either. It was about jurisdiction. About status. About the feeling of being right.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe tiger,\u201d continued Dr. AuDHS, \u201cis the animal of truth. He sees: green. He cannot help it. He says it. And he believes that with that the matter is\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2026settled,\u201d said Hans Castorp quietly, and he was startled because he had spoken.<\/p>\n
Dr. AuDHS looked at him, and in this look there was a small, approving nod.<\/p>\n
\u201cSettled,\u201d he confirmed. \u201cBut truth rarely settles anything. Truth is only an offer. Sometimes an attack.\u201d<\/p>\n
Morgenstern furrowed his brow.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd the lion?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cAh,\u201d said Dr. AuDHS, and now came that irony which is not mocking but friendly to insight. \u201cThe lion is the most interesting animal. Not because he is right, but because he has power. He decides which truth counts \u2013 not as knowledge, but as order.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe says: if you believe it is blue, then it is blue,\u201d said Morgenstern, and one could hear the disgust.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes,\u201d said Dr. AuDHS. \u201cThat is a sentence that is very popular in our time. People call that tolerance. They call it perspective. They call it\u2026\u201d He raised his shoulders slightly. \u201c\u2026empathy. But often it is nothing other than conflict avoidance.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hans Castorp thought of the Sonnenalp itself, of its entire architecture of conflict avoidance: soft armchairs, warm lights, soothing windows, programs that turn everything into \u2018experience\u2019. Up here even illness is arranged so that it does not disturb.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd why does he punish the tiger?\u201d asked Hans Castorp.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause the tiger makes the mistake of investing energy,\u201d said Dr. AuDHS. \u201cTime. Attention. Nerves. The lion does not punish the truth. He punishes the waste.\u201d<\/p>\n
Morgenstern twisted his mouth.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is\u2026\u201d he said. \u201cThat is cynical.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is biological,\u201d answered Dr. AuDHS. \u201cAnd now we come to something that you both already know without knowing it.\u201d<\/p>\n