Joseph Conrad was the one who stood at the fountainhead of all the twentieth century modernistic literature and he was one of the most sagacious writers of all times.
On the whole Under Western Eyes is a modern tale of Judas, ostensibly based on the traitor’s confessions.
There are two sides of barricade…
On one side there are those who assail…

You suppose that I am a terrorist, now – a destructor of what is, but consider that the true destroyers are they who destroy the spirit of progress and truth, not the avengers who merely kill the bodies of the persecutors of human dignity. Men like me are necessary to make room for self–contained, thinking men like you.

On the other side there are those who defend…

All that means disruption. Better that thousands should suffer than that a people should become a disintegrated mass, helpless like dust in the wind. Obscurantism is better than the light of incendiary torches. The seed germinates in the night. Out of the dark soil springs the perfect plant. But a volcanic eruption is sterile, the ruin of the fertile ground.

Nothing can make men standing on the opposite sides live in peace… There are also turncoats and traitors and they are hated by both sides.