There are people everywhere who form a Fourth World, or a
diaspora of their own. . . . They can be Christians or Hindus or Muslims or
Jews or pagans or atheists. They can be young or old, men or women, soldiers or
pacifists, rich or poor. They may be patriots, but they are never chauvinists.
. . . When you are among them you know you will not be mocked or resented,
because they will not care about your race, your faith, your sex or your
nationality, and they suffer fools if not gladly, at least sympathetically.
They laugh easily. They are easily grateful. They are never mean. They are not
inhibited by fashion, public opinion or political correctness. They are exiles
in their own communities, because they are always in a minority, but they form
a mighty nation, if they only knew it. It is the nation of nowhere, and I have
come to think that its natural capital is Trieste."
