All inquisitions operate on the basis of a particular logical inversion: the interchange of existential and universal quantifiers. The abuse of existential quantifiers (that assert that there exists at least one value of the variable for which a proposition is true) is the trademark of inquisition. The ominous statements prefixed by “there are some comrades who…,” for instance, are in fact universal statements, as can be readily ascertained by an analysis of their content. They are ill-defined, vague, and thus they fail to discriminate. Every statement is inquisitive in nature: the identity of “some” serves mainly to define the scope of the contemplated rectifying measures, or the magnitude of the purgatory expedition that is sure to be mounted against the community sooner or later. The universal uncertainty is a corollary of the random threat.

Conversely, universal quantifiers (that assert that a proposition is true for all values of the variable) spell out the desideratum, the unreachable ideal, the supposed telos of the inquisition. The threatening “ought” is concealed behind the benign “is,” which obviously does not correspond with reality. Such statements are in fact existential statements, pointing at the Grand Inquisitor as the only one, in the last analysis, who is beyond the universal suspicion. At least temporarily, though, for even the Grand Inquisitor is secure only to the extent that he is in power. He is implicitly the sole representative of the community, he is the community, the harbinger of all the virtues attributed to those who are potentially nothing but “some.”

This logical inversion terrifies beyond the words, beyond the threats, and beyond the deeds of the inquisition. It reaches every individual by compelling him to simultaneously hide and seek, without ever setting the boundary between the two communities, that is, between “some” and “all.” Moreover, even when the boundary is temporarily fixed in sharp outlines, every individual experiences shifts in perception, akin to those brought to consciousness by Gestalt Psychology, where black and white profiles assume prominence alternatively. “Some” and “all” refer to the same universe, and the boundary is thus not only plastic, but also relative. The ancient Paradox of the Liar (where not to believe is to lie) penetrates the social fabric, and it thus becomes real. And there is nothing as real as paradoxical reality.