general mood of the human race

[reyn_til_runa]

"The general mood of the human race, their exaggerated, totally groundless hope for peace, their hope that lived on hope, their bustling hope factory, while the human mechanism was running down -- all that hopeless hoping alarmed us."

-Gunter Grass, The Rat

what functions are attributed to "the general mood of the human race" as discussed in this quote?

[Expat]

The IEI functions, which is Grass's type.

Creative : the very sensitivity to, and concern with, the "mood of the human race", which "alarmed" him (or his characters as it may be).

blocked with rather than : a concern with a more "visionary", imaginary, bigger-picture and longer-term, and therefore less concrete, mood, rather than with the mood of real individuals in a real situation.

: just stating the analysis as fact: "totally groundless hope for peace", "human mechanism was running down "

is the least visible, though -- what is clear is the blocked with .

Oh, and by the way -- I think Grass is IEI due to several other reasons; I'm not typing him with base on that one quote. Just for the record.