The human element

"Nothing has changed in the hand. When the hour strikes, it is obedient and pleasing," reads the first pages of Ellen Hinsey's collection of poems, The Human Element, which dares a journey into the abysses of human existence and holds up the mirror in crystal-clear, finely balanced language to our dark times marked by discord, violence and populism. How much longer will Cain raise his hand against Abel, Ellen Hinsey raises the question of human nature. For her, who has been following the precarious transformation process in Central and Eastern Europe for years and is a profound expert in philosophy, theology and literature from antiquity to the present day, everything stems from man's unease with his existence: from the unease of being "wanted in the world without our knowledge" ; from the fact that man, in order to get his unease under control, has to use the W.