A Carysfort Press Book in association with Peter Lang
Modern Death: The End of Civilization by Carl-Henning Wijkmark
Translated from the German Senftenberg Version 2006 by Dan Farrelly
First published in Ireland in 2007 as a paperback original by Carysfort Press, 58 Woodfield, Scholarstown Road Dublin 16, Ireland
©2006 Copyright remains with the author
ISBN: 978-1-78874-887-2 paperback
Typeset by Carysfort Press
Cover design by Alan Bennis
This book is published with the financial assistance of
The Arts Council (An Chomhairle Ealaíon), Dublin, Ireland
Carysfort Press acknowledges the financial assistance of
Ireland Literature Exchange (Translation Fund), Dublin, Ireland
info@ irelandliterature.com
Performing rights: all professional and amateur rights for this play are strictly reserved. Application for permission for performance should be made before rehearsals begin to: Carysfort Press.
Caution: All rights reserved. No part of this book may be printed or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system without permission in writing from the publishers.
About the author
The Author
Carl-Henning Wijkmark was born in Stockholm in 1934. He studied literary history and philosophy in Munich and Lund. He is the translator of works by Benjamin, Nietzsche, and Lautréamont. His many publications, some of which have been translated into German, include essays, novels, and plays. He has also written for television and radio.
About the book
The Play
Modern Death is written in the form of a symposium, in which a government agency brings together a group of experts to discuss a strategy for dealing with an ageing population. The speakers take up the thread of the ongoing debates about care for the aged and about euthanasia. In dark satirical mode the author shows what grim developments are possible. The theme of a ‘final solution’ is mentioned, though the connection with Hitler is explicitly denied. The most inhuman crimes against human dignity are discussed in the symposium as if they were a necessary condition of future progress. The fiercely ironical treatment of the material tears off the thin veil that disguises the specious arguments and insidious expressions of concern for the well-being of the younger generation.
Though the text was written nearly thirty years ago, the play has a terrifyingly modern relevance.
ISBN 978-1-78874-887-2
www.carysfortpress.com
Cover design: mara@eprint
Translator’s Note
Carl-Henning Wijkmark’s original text, published in Swedish in 1978, was translated into German by Hildegard Bergfeld and published by the Gemini Verlag Berlin in 2001. In 2006 the Senftenberg Theatre Company adapted the piece for the German stage. The present English translation is based, by kind permission, on the Senftenberg version.
Dramatis personae:
A Moderator
Mr Bert Persson, Ministerial Director
Dr Storm, Institute for Medical Ethics (female)
Mr Axel Rönning, historian of Intellectual Sciences and writer
Dr Carnemo, theologian (female)
A recorder of minutes
←viii | 1→
Moderator: Ladies and Gentlemen! I would like to welcome you all to this symposium on the theme of ‘The last phase of a human life’. The symposium was organized by DELLEM. DELLEM is the project group in the Social Ministry dealing with particular questions regarding the last phase of human life.
When we sent out our invitations and information we also named some ground rules to be observed in such conferences involving issues which public opinion treats as sensitive. I hope you will not take it amiss if I briefly remind you. Above all, this is a closed conference: the media have no access to it, and what is dealt with here may only be communicated to them – now and also later – with my approval. Second: everyone is requested not to leave the conference without a serious reason. Experience has shown that continued presence of [all members] is of great importance for maintaining contact in the discussion and thus for the outcome of the whole symposium. That was the unpleasant part. We hope that the enjoyment of one another’s company will compensate for it.
The last phase of human life: this covers an extraordinarily broad spectrum of questions, from theology and philosophy to sociology, biology, and ←1 | 2→chemistry. And so I am especially happy to welcome our invited participants, who have agreed to expound for us their points of view. We are grateful to them for thus giving us a means of testing our ideas.
I welcome Ministerial Director, Mr Bert Persson; Dr Storm from the Institute for Medical Ethics; the historian of Intellectual Sciences, and writer, Mr Axel Rönning; and the theologian, Dr Carnemo.
In his introductory paper Mr Persson will give an overview of the problems and a political orientation which reflects the Social Ministry’s point of view. Then we will have two lectures. Dr Storm will speak about social and nursing ethics, and Mr Rönning will give what he calls a review of the history of human dignity. But first, Mr Persson.
Ministerial Director Persson: Ladies and Gentlemen! In this early stage of our new plans we are happy to put out feelers in different directions to gather criticism and knowledge through informal discussion, for the questions about the last phase of human life are no longer the privileged domain of the doctors. Instead, shared economic concerns are to pave the way for necessary reforms. I don’t need to describe the situation in much detail. A quick sketch should suffice. The population pyramid looks like a cigar, and if everything goes on as at present it will assume the form of a mushroom. The children we have been deprived of through abortions will reappear threefold at the top when we are old and unproductive. One person in four is on a pension by reason of age, and one person in eight has taken early retirement. 75% of care costs are for long-term care and for hopeless cases. Here the summit is reached and in the last ten to fifteen years has been passed. Amongst the 25% ←2 | 3→of those who are productive and carry everything there are varying degrees of discontent, but this discontent has been gagged in two ways. The first is called the right to vote, and silences the politicians. Old people still have the right to vote, even if they live to be a hundred, and no party can afford to lose two million votes. The other is an old taboo and is called reverence for human life, and this silences everybody. And so all is quiet, although the pressure of taxes becomes increasingly unbearable, unemployment is on the increase, and a seemingly endless depression is consuming all but the bones of our society.
Perhaps one or other of you will feel uneasy.
Where is Persson heading? Don’t worry. I haven’t forgotten Hitler. We are not planning a mass murder of the old, the physically impaired, and other useless mouths to be fed. If Hitler achieved anything, it was that he made such thoughts impossible in Europe for the foreseeable future. The question is whether the very name of Hitler should, along with all that is associated with it,