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16.1.60

Dearest Anne

I'm gonna try an experiment. I haven't time to write two letters
of this detail now, and if I wait til Monday to write Mom and Dad
I'll forget too much. So why don't I write one, and you can send it to
Mom for her to type and photostat and then return the original to you.
O.K.? O.K.!

Our first fascinating experience this weekend was the train ride yesterday
morning to Nürnburg. We sat down (Mary Ann Campbell and I) in one of
the customary 4 seat sections, and after about 5 minutes discovered that
the man sitting opposite us spoke English (in fact very fine English!).
The next two hours we spent in fascinating conversation with him on
all sorts of subjects - and strangely enough I feel that I really got to know
the man - his ideas, his personality, his way of life, his very person - in a
way that seems impossible for only two hours. He is like a friend though
I don't even know his last name. Perhaps this is partly because he was much
like me in mind and values - I don't know. But it's quite an experience
to contact so much of a person under such circumstances - in a foreign
land on a 2 hour train ride. Men are more alike the world over than we
realize. But back to the man. He is now the editor of a magazine on
medical-technical matters - informing doctors and hospitals of new equipment
and ideas, etc. He lives and works mainly in Berlin, is 53 married and
has a 5 months old daughter (at 53!). We talked a lot about sort of
philosophical matters - the course of human history in the present day (esp.
in Europe and Germany), German politics and social values, the meaning
of history, science (in which he is widely and well versed!), etc. His outlook
on life is quite interesting. He distrusts the "big idea" (as in Hitler), detests
authority and bureaucratic rule making, but realizes that most people
are selfish (he called it "privatism" and dated it from about WWI) and so
hopes for some higher idea of "community" to develop without the usual
element of dictation as it is today. But he doesn't really believe in progress
sort of thinks that men will always sin and kill each other (sort of
nihilistic, but ironically and calmly, not bitterly). As for German
politics (here he is consistent with his world view) he thinks Adenauer
an opportunist with no long-run policy, but also says that at