Great Kundera quote

So this morning I was rereading The Unbearable Lightness of Being for probably the 15th time in preparation for a class next week when I stumbled upon this great quote.  It's amazing that you can read this book so many times and still discover the most precious gems of wisdom:

"[T]he people who struggle against what we call totalitarian regimes cannot function with queries and doubts. They, too, need certainties and simple truths to make the multitudes understand, to provoke collective tears." (page 254)

Kundera was certainly no fan of communists, but he understood well that anti-communists could be just as brutal and simplistic in their chosen historical narratives about good and evil.  Historical nuance is the enemy of certainty.  

Kundera, page 254