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13 - Political Liberalism - part 2 - The Ego and His Own - Max Stirner · Logic Library

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Section thirteen. Political liberalism, Part two. Political liberty means that the Polish
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the state is free freedom of religion, that religion is free, as freedom
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of conscience signifies that conscience is free. Not therefore that I am free from
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the state, from religion, from conscience, or that I am rid of
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them. It does not mean my liberty, but the liberty of a power
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that rules and subjugates me. It means that one of my despots, like
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state religion conscience, is free state religion conscience. These despots make me a
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slave, and their liberty is my slavery. That in this they necessarily follow
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the principle the end hellos The means is self evident if the welfare of the
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state is the end, or is a hallowed means. If justice is a
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state's end, homicide is a hallowed means, and is called by its sacred
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name execution. The sacred state hallows everything that is serviceable to it. Individual
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liberty, over which civic liberalism keeps jealous watch, does not, by any
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means signify a completely free self determination, by which actions become altogether mine.
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But only independence of persons individually free. Is he who is responsible to no
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man taken in this sense, and we are not allowed to understand that otherwise.
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Not only the ruler is individually free, that is irresponsible to it men
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before God we know he acknowledges himself responsible, but all who are responsible only
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to the law. This kind of liberty was one through the revolutionary movement of
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the century to wit independence of arbitrary will or tell anatroplesir Hence, the constitutional
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prince must self be stripped of all personality, deprived of all individual decision,
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that he may not, as a person, as an individual man, violate
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the individual liberty of others. The personal will of the ruler has disappeared in
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the constitutional prince. It is with the right feeling therefore, that absolute princes
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resist this. Nevertheless, these very ones profess to be, in best sense,
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Christian princes. For this, however, they must become a purely spiritual
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power. As the Christian is subject only to spirit. God is spirit.
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The purely spiritual power is consistently represented only by the constitutional Prince, he who
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without any personal significance, stands there spiritualized to the degree that he can rank
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as a sheer uncanny spirit. As an idea, the constitutional king is a
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truly Christian king, the genuine, consistent carrying out of the Christian principle in
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the constitutional monarchy, individual dominion, that is, a real ruler that wills
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has found its end here. Therefore, individual liberty prevails, independence of every
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individual dictator of every one who could dictate to me. With the telenetriplezir it
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is the completed Christian state life, a spiritualized life. The behavior of the
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commonality is liberal through and through every personal invasion of another sphere revolts the civic
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sense. If the citizen sees that one is dependent on the humor, the
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pleasure, the will of a man as individual, that is, as not
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as authorized by a higher power, at once, he brings his liberalism to
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the front and shrieks about arbitrariness. In fine, the citizen asserts his freedom
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from what is called orders ordinance. No one has any business to give me
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orders. Orders carries the idea that what I am to do is another man's
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will. While law does not express a person or authority of another, the
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liberty of the commonality is liberty or independence from the will of another person,
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so called personal or individual liberty. For being personally free means being only so
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free that no other person can dispose of mine, or that what I may
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or may not do does not depend on the personal decree of another. The
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liberty of the press, for example, is such a liberty of liberalism.
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Liberalism fighting only against the coercion of the censorship as that of personal wilfulness,
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but otherwise showing itself extremely inclined and willing to tyrannize over the press by press
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laws. That is, the civic liberals want liberty of writing for themselves,
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for as they are law abiding, their writings will not bring them under the
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law. Only liberal matter, that is, only lawful matter, is to
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be allowed to be printed. Otherwise, the press laws threaten press penalties.
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If one sees personal liberty assured, one does not notice at all. How
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if a new issue happens to arise, the most glaring unfreedom becomes dominant.
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For one is rid of orders, indeed, and no one has any business
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to give his orders. But one has become so much the more submissive to
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the law. One is enthralled. Now in due legal form, in the
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citizen state, there are only three people who are compelled to thousands of things.
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For example, the deference to a confession of faith et cetera. But
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what does that amount to? Why it is only the state the law,
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not any man that compels them. What does the commonality mean by inveighing against
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every personal order, that is, every order not founded on the cause on
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reason? It is simply fighting in the interests of the cause footnote sacha,
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which commonly means thing and footnote against the dominion of persons. But the mind's
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cause is the rational, good, lawful, et cetera. That is the
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good cause the commonality wants an impersonal ruler. Furthermore, if the principle is
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this, that only the cause is the rule man to it, the cause
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of morality, the cause of legality, et cetera, then no personal balking
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of one by the other may be authorized, either as formerly, for example,
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the commoner was barked of the aristocratic offices, the aristocrat of common mechanical
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trades, et cetera. Free competition must exist only through the thing footnote sachen
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and footnote can one bark another, for example, the rich man barking the
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impecunious man by money a thing, not as a person. Henceforth, only
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one lordship, the lordship the state, is admitted personally, No one is
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any longer lord of another, even at birth. The children belong to the
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state and to the parents only in the name of the state, which for
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example, does not allow infanticide, demands their baptism, et cetera. But
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all the state's children, furthermore, are of quite equal account in its eyes
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civic or political equality, and they may see to it themselves how they get
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along with each other. They may compete. Free competition means nothing else than
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that every one can present themselves, assert himself, fight against another. Of
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course, the feudal party set itself against this, as its existence depended on
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absence of competition. The contests in the time of the restoration in France had
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no other substance than this, that the bourgeoisie was struggling for free competition and
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the feudalists were seeking to bring back the guild system. Now free competition has
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won, and against the guild system it had to when see below for the
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further discussion. If the revolution ended in a reaction, this only showed what
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the revolution really was. For every effort arrives at reaction when it comes to
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discrete reflection, and storms forward in the original action only so long as it
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is an intoxication, an indiscretion. Discretion will always be the cue of the
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reaction, because discretion sets limits and liberates what was really wanted. That is
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the principle from the initial unbridledness and unrestrainedness. Wild young fellows, punctious students
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who set aside all considerations are really philistines, since with them, as with
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the latter, considerations form the substance of their conduct. Only that as swaggerers
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they are mutinous against considerations and in negative relations to them. But as philistines
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later they give themselves up to considerations and have positive relations to them. In
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both cases, all their doing and thinking turns upon considerations. But the philistine
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is reactionary in relation to the student. He is the wild fellow come to
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discrete reflection, as latter is the unreflecting philistine. Daily experience confirms the truth
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of this transformation and shows how the swaggerers turned to philistines in turning gray so
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to the so called reaction in Germany gives proof that it was only the discrete
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continuation of the warlike jubilation of liberty. The revolution was not directed against the
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established, but against the establishment. The question against a particular establishment. It
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did away with this ruler, not with the ruler. On the contrary,
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the French were ruled most inexorably. It killed the old Fisher's rulers, but
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wanted to confer on the virtuous ones a securely established position. That is,
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it simply set virtue in the place of fais, and virtue again are,
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on their part, distinguished from each other only as a wild young fellow from
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a philistine, et cetera. To this day, the revolutionary principle has gone
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no farther than to assail only one or another particular establishment. That is,
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be reformatory, much as may be improved strongly, as discrete progress may be
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adhered to. Always there is only a new masters set in the old one's
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place, and the overturning is a building up. We are still at the
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distinction of the young philistine from the old one. The revolution began in bourgeois
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fashion with the uprising of the third estate, the middle class. In bourgeois
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fashion it dries away. It was not the individual man, and he alone
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is man, that became free, but the citizen, the citoyen, the
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political man, who for that very reason is not man but a specimen of
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the human species, and more particular a specimen of the species citizen, a
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free citizen. In the Revolution, it was not the individual who acted so
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as to affect the world's history, but the people the nation. The sovereign
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nation wanted to affect everything a fancied eye an idea. For example, the
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nation is a peers acting. The individuals contribute themselves as tools of this idea
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and act as citizens. The commonality has its power and at the same time
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its limits in the fundamental law of the state, in a charter. In
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a legitimate or just prince, who himself is guided and rules according to rational
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laws. In short, in legality footnote legitimate or righteous German rechch just gecht
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and footnote the period of the bourgeoisie is ruled by the British spirit of legality.
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An assembly of provincials states, for example, is ever recalling that its
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authorization goes only so and so far, and that it is called at all
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only through favor, and can be thrown out again. Through this favor.
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It is always reminding itself of its vocation. It is certainly not to be
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denied that my father begot me, but now that I am once begotten.
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Surely his purposes in begetting do not concern me a bit. And whatever he
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may have called me to do, I do what I myself will. Therefore,
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even a called assembly of estates the French Assembly, in the beginning of
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the revolution, recognized quite rightly that it was independent of the caller. It
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existed, and would have been stupid if it did not avail itself with the
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right of existence, but fancied it self dependent as on a father. The
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cold one no longer has to ask what did the caller want when he created
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me? But what do I want? After I have once followed the call?
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Not the caller, not the constitutions, not the charter according to which
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their meeting was called out. Nothing will be to him a sacred, inviolable
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power. He is authorized for everything that is in his power. He will
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know no restrictive authorization, will not want to be loyal. This, if
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any such thing could be expected from chambers at all, would give a completely
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egoistic chamber, severed from all naval string and without consideration. But chambers are
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always devout, and therefore one cannot be surprised if so much half way or
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undecided. That is hypocritical egoism parades in them. The members of the estates
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are to remain within the limits that are traced for them by the Charter,
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by the King's will, et cetera. If they will not or cannot do
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that, then they are to step out what dutiful man could act. Otherwise
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could put himself, his conviction and his will as the first thing who could
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be so immoral as to want to assert himself. Even if the body,
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corporate and everything should go to ruin over it, people keep carefully within the
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limits of their authorization. Of course, one must remain within the limits of
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his power anyhow, because no one can do more than he can. My
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power, or if it be so, powerlessness be my sole limit. But
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authorisations only restraining precepts. Should I profess this all suppers a view, No,
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I am a law abiding citizen. The commonality professes a morality which is
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most closely connected with its essence. The first demand of this morality is to
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the effect that one should carry on a solid business, an honorable trade,
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lead a moral life. Immoral to it is the sharper, the demi rap,
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the thief, robber, a murderer, the gamester, the penniless man,
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without a situation the frivolous man. The doughty commoner designates the feeling against
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these immoral people as his deepest indignation. All these lacks settlement, the solid
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quality of business, a solid seemly life, a fixed income, et cetera.
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In short, they belong because their existence does not rest on a secure
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basis to the dangerous individuals or isolated persons, to the dangerous proletariat. They
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are individual bawlers who offer no guarantee and have nothing to lose, and sow
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nothing to risk. The forming of family ties. For example, binds a
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man. He who is bound furnishes security can be taken hold of. Not
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so the street walker. The gamesters takes everything on the game, ruins himself
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and others no guarantee. All who appear to the commoner suspicious, hostile,
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and dangerous might be comprised under the name vagabonds. Every vagabondish way of living
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displeases him, For there are intellectual vagabonds too, to whom the a hereditary
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dwelling plays of their fathers seems too cramped and a press for them to be
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willing to satisfy themselves with the limited space any more. Instead, of keeping
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within the limits of a temperate style of thinking and taking is inviolable truth what
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furnishes comfort and tranquility to thousands. They overlap all bounds of the traditional and
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run wild with their impudent criticism and untamed mania. For doubt, these extravagating
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vagabonds. They form the class of the unstable, restless changeable, that is,
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of the proletariat, and if they give voice to their unsettled nature,
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are called unruly fellows such a broad sense as the so called proletariat or pauperism.
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How much one would err if on believe the commonality to be desirous of
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doing away with poverty poorperism to the best of its ability. On the contrary,
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the good citizen helps himself with the incomparably comforting conviction that the fact is
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that the good things of fortune are unequally divided, and will always remain so
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according to God's wise decree. The poverty which surrounds him in every alley does
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not disturb the true commoner further than that at most he clears his account with
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it by throwing an alms, or finds work and food for an honest and
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serviceable fellow. But so much. The more does he feel his quiet enjoyment
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clouded by innovating and discontented poverty, by those poor who no longer behave quietly
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and endure, but begin to run wild and become restless. Lock up the
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vagabond thrust a breeder of unrest into the darkest dungeon. He wants to arouse
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dissatisfaction and inside people against existing institutions in the state, Stone him, stone
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him. But from these identical discontented ones comes a reasoning somewhat as follows.
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It need not make any difference to the good citizens who protects them and their
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principles, whether an absolute king or a constitutional one a republic, if only
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they are are protected. And what is their principle whose protector they always love?
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Not that of labor, not that of birth either, but that of
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mediocrity, of the golden mean, a little birth and a little labor.
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That is an interest bearing possession. Possession is here the fixed, the given
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inherited birth. Interest drawing is the exertion about it, labor, laboring,
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capital. Therefore only no immoderation, no ultra, no radicalism. Right of
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birth, certainly, but only hereditary possessions. Labor certainly, yet little or
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none at all of one's own, but labor, of capital, and of
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the subject laborers. If an age is imbued with an error, some always
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derive advantage from the error, while the rest have to suffer from it.
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In the Middle Ages, the error was general among Christians that the Church must
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have all power or the supreme lordship upon earth. The hierarchs believed in this
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truth not less than a layman, and both were spellbound in a like error.
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But by it, the hierarchs had the advantage of power. The layman
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had to suffer subjection. However, as the saying goes, one learns wisdom
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by suffering, and so the laymen at last learned wisdom and no longer believed
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in the medieval truth. A like relation exists between the commonality and the laboring
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class. Commoner and laborer believe in the truth of money. They who do
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not possess it believe in it no less than those who possess it. The
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laymen. Therefore, as well as the priests, money governs the world is
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the keynote of the civic epoch. A destitute aristocrat and a destitute laborer,
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as starvelings amount to nothing so far as political consideration is concerned. Birth and
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labor do not do it, but money brings consideration. Footnote does gelt gibgeltun
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and footnote The possessors rule, but the state trains up from the destitute its
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servants, to whom in proportion as they are to rule, govern in its
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name. It gives money a salary. I receive everything from the state.
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Have I anything without the state's assent? What I have without this it takes
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from me as soon as it discovers the lack of a legal title? Do
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I not therefore have everything through its grace its assent? On this alone,
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on a legal title, the commonality rests The commoner is what he is through
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the protection of the state. Through the state's grace, he would necessarily be
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afraid of losing everything if the state's power were broken. But how is it
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with him who has nothing to lose? How with the proletarian, As he
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has nothing to lose, he does not need the protection of the state for
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his nothing he gain. On the contrary, if that protection of the state
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is withdrawn from the protege, therefore, the non possessor will regard the state
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as a power protecting the possessor, which privileges the latter, but does nothing
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for him, the non possessor, but to succor his blood. The state
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is a commonest state is the estate of the commonality. It protects man not
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according to his labor, but according to his tractableness loyalty to it, according
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to whether the rights entrusted to him by the state are enjoyed and managed in
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accordance with the will, that is, laws of the state. Under the
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regime of the commonality, the laborers always fall into the hands of the possessors,
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of those who have at their disposal some bit of the state domains,
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and everything possessible in state domain belongs to the state, and is only a
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fief of the individual, especially money and land of the capitalists. Therefore,
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the laborer cannot realize on his libelabor to the extent of the value that it
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has for the consumer. Laborer is badly paid, the capitalist has the greatest
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profit from it. Well paid, and more than well paid are only the
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labors of those who heighten the splendor and dominion of the state, the labors
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of high state servants. The state pays well that its good citizens, the
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possessors may be able to pay badly without danger. It secures to itself by
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good payment its servants, out of whom it forms a protecting power, a
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police. Open brackets to the police belong soldiers, officials of all kinds,
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for example, those of justice, education, et cetera. In short,
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the whole machinery of the state close brackets for the good citizens, and the
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good citizens gladly pay high tax rates to it in order to pay so much
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lower rates to their laborers. But the class of laborers because unprotected in what
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they essentially are open brackets for they do not enjoy the protection of the stated
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laborers, but as its subjects, they have a share in the enjoyment of
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the police, a so called protection of the law. Close brackets remains a
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power hostile to this state, this state of possessors, this citizen kingship.
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Its principle. Labor is not recognized as to its value. It is exploited
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as spoil the possessors the enemy. Footnote exploited is auscuboided, spoil is creek
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spoiter and footnote. The laborers have the most enormous power in their hands,
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and if they once became thoroughly conscious of it and used it. Nothing would
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withstand them. They would only have to stop labor, regard the product of
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labor as theirs, and enjoy it. This is the sense of the labor
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disturbances which show themselves here and there. The state rests on the slavery of
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labor. If labor becomes free, this state is lost. End of Section thirteen.