the destructive character sees nothing permanent. but for this very reason he sees ways everywhere. where others encounter walls or mountains, there, too, he sees a way. but because he sees a way everywhere, he has to clear things from it everywhere. not always by brute force; sometimes by the most refined. because he sees ways everywhere, he always stands at a crossroads. no moment can know what the next will bring. what exists he reduces to rubble – not for the sake of rubble, but for that of the way leading through it.

walter benjamin, frankfurter zeitung, 20th november 1931