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17 - Humane Liberalism - part 3 - The Ego and His Own - Max Stirner · The Philosophy Insights Collection

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Section seventeen of The Ego and his Own Humane Liberalism, Part three. Do
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I now reject what liberalism has won in its various exertions. Far be the
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day that anything one should be lost only after man has become free through liberalism.
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I turned my gaze upon myself and confessed to myself openly what man seems
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to have gained, I alone have gained. Man is free when man is
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to man the supreme being. So it belongs to the completion of liberalism that
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every other supreme being be annulled. Theology overturned by anthropology, God and his
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grace laugh down atheism universal the egoism of property has given up the last that
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it had to give, when even that my God has become senseless. For
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God exists only when he has his heart the individual's welfare, as the latter
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seeks his welfare in him. Political liberalism abolish the inequality of masters and servants.
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It made people masterless, and the master was now removed from the individual,
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the egoist to become a ghost the law or the state. Social liberalism
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abolishes the inequality of possession or the poor and rich, and makes people possessionless
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or propertyless. Property is withdrawn from the individual and surrendered to ghostly society.
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Humane liberalism makes people godless atheistic. Therefore the individual's god, my God,
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must be put an end to. Now masterlessness is indeed at the same time
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freedom from service possessionlessness, at the same time freedom from care and godlessness at
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the same time freedom from prejudice. But with the master, the servant falls
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away with possession, the care about it, with the firmly rooted God the
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prejudice. But since the Master rises again in as state, the servants appears
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again as subject. Since possession becomes the property of society, care to be
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gotten anew as labor. And since God as man becomes a prejudice, there
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arises a new faith, faith in humanity or liberty. For the individual's god,
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the god of all vis a man, is now exalted, for it
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is the highest thing in all of us to be man. But as nobody
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can become entirely what the idea man imports, man remains to the individual a
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lofty other world and unattained supreme being a God. But at the same time
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this is the true God, because he is fully adequate to us to wit
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our own self. We ourselves, but separated from us and lifted above us.
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PostScript. The foregoing review of free human criticism was written by Bits immediately
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after the appearance of the books in question, as was also that which elsewhere
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refers to writings of this tendency. I did little more than bring together the
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fragments. But criticism is restlessly pressing forward, and thereby makes it necessary for
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me to come back to it once more, now that my book is finished,
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and insert this concluding note. I have before me the latest eighth number
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of the Algamina literator Zeitung of Bruno Bauer. There Again, the general interests
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of society stand at the top. But criticism has reflected and given this society
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a specification by which it is discriminated from a form which previously had still been
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confused with it. That state in former passages, still celebrated as free state,
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quite is given up, given up because it can in no wise fulfill
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the task of human society. Criticism only saw itself compelled to identify for a
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moment human and political affairs in eighteen forty two. But now it has found
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that the state, even as free state, is not human society, or
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as it could likewise say that the people is not man. We saw how
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it got through with theology and showed clearly that God sinks into dust before man.
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We see it now come to a clearance with politics in the same way,
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and show that before man peoples and nationalities fall. So we see how
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it has its explanation with church and state, declaring them both unhuman. And
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we shall see, for it betrays this to us already, how it can
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also give proof that before man the masses, which it even calls a spiritual
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being, appear worthless. And how should the lesser spiritual beings be able to
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maintain themselves before the supreme spirit Man casts down the false id does so what
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the critic has in view the present in the scrutiny of the masses, which
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he will place before man in order to combat them from the standpoint of man.
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What is now the object of criticism the masses a spiritual being? These
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the critic will learn to know and will find that they are in contradiction with
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man. He will demonstrate that they are unhuman, and will succeed just as
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well in this demonstration as in the former ones, that the divine and the
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national, or the concerns of church and of state, were the unhuman.
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The masses are defined as the most significant product of the revolution, as the
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deceived multitude which the illusions of political illumination and in general, the entire illumination
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movement of the eighteenth century have given over to boundless disgruntlement. The revolution satisfied
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some by its result and left others unsatisfied. The satisfied part is the commonality,
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bourgeoisie, etc. The unsatisfied is the masses. Does not the critic
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so placed himself belong to their masses. But the unsatisfied are still in great
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mistiness, and their discontent utters itself only in a boundless disgruntlement. This the
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likewise unsatisfied critic now wants to master. He cannot want and attain more than
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to bring that spiritual being, the masses, out of its disgruntlement, and
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to uplift those who are only disgruntled, i e. To give them the
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right attitude toward those results of the revolution which are to be overcome. He
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can become the head of the masses, their decided spokesman. Therefore, he
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wants also to abolish the deep chasm which parts him from the multitude from those
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who want to uplift the lower classes of the people. He is distinguished by
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wanting to deliver from disgruntlement, not merely these, but himself too. But
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assuredly his consciousness does not deceive him either when he takes the masses to be
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the natural opponents of theory, and foresees that the more this theory shall develop
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itself so much, the more will it make the masses compact. For the
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critic cannot enlighten or satisfy the masses with his presupposition man. If over against
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the commonality, they are only the lower classes of the people, politically insignificant
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masses over against man, they must still more be mere masses, humanly insignificant.
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Yes, unhuman masses or a multitude of unmn The critic clears away everything
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human, and, starting from the presupposition that the human is the true he
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works against himself, denying it wherever it had been hitherto found. He proves
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only that the human is to be found nowhere except in his head, but
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the unhuman everywhere. The unhuman is the real, the extent on all hands.
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And by the proof that it is not human, the critic only enunciates
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plainly the tortological sentence, that is the unhuman. But what if the unhuman,
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turning its back on itself with resolute heart, should at the same time
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turn away from the disturbing critic and leave him standing untouched and unstung by his
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remonstrance. You call me the unhuman, it might say to him, And
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so I really am for you. But I am so only because you bring
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me into opposition to the human. And I could despise myself only so long
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as I let myself be hypnotized into this opposition. I was contemptible because I
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sought my better self outside me. I was the unhuman because I dreamed of
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the human. I resembled the pious who hunger for their true self and always
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remain poor sinners. I thought of myself only in comparison to another. Enough,
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I was not all in all, was not unique note original German for
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unique einzig end of note. But now I cease to appear to myself as
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the unhuman, Cease to measure myself and let myself be measured by man,
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cease to recognize anything above me. Consequently, adu humane critic, I only
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have been the unhuman. Am it now no longer? But am the unique?
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Yes to your loathing the egoistic, yet not the egoistic, as it
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lets itself be measured by the human, humane and unselfish by the egoistic,
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as the unique. We have to pay attention to still another sentence of the
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same number, criticism sets up no dogmas and wants to learn to know nothing
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but things. The critic is afraid of becoming dogmatic or setting up dogmas.
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Of course, why thereby he would become the opposite of the critic, the
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dogmatist. He would now become bad as he is good as critic, or
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would become from an unselfish man, an egoist, etc. Of all things
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no dogma. This is his dogma. For the critic remains on one and
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the same ground with the dogmatist, that of thoughts. Like the latter,
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he always starts from a thought that varies. In this that he never ceases
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to keep the principal thought in the process of thinking, and so does not
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let it become stable. He only asserts the thought process against the thought,
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faith, the progress of thinking against stationariness in it from criticism. No thought
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is safe, since criticism is thought or the thinking mind itself. Therefore,
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I repeat that the religious world and This is the world thought reaches its completion
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in criticism, where thinking extends its encroachments over every thought, no one of
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which may egoistically establish itself. Where would the purity of criticism, the purity
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of thinking, be left, if even one thought escape the process of thinking.
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This explains the fact that the critic has even begun already to gibe gently
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here and there are the thoughts of man of humanity and humaneness, because he
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suspects that here a thought is approaching dogmatic fixity. But yet he cannot decompose
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this thought till he has found a higher in which it dissolves, for he
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moves only in thoughts. This higher thought might be enunciated as that of the
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movement or process of thinking itself, i e. As the thought of thinking
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or of criticism. For example, freedom of thinking has in fact become complete.
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Here freedom of mind celebrates its triumph for the individual. Egoistic thoughts have
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lost their dogmatic truculence. There is nothing left but the dogma of freethinking or
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of criticism, against everything that belongs to the world of thought. Criticism is
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in the right i e. In might, it is the victor criticism and
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criticism alone is up to date. From the standpoint of thought. There is
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no power capable of being an overmatch for criticisms, and it is a pleasure
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to see how easily and sportively this dragon swallows all other serpents of thought.
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Each serpent twist to be sure, but criticism crushes it in all its turns.
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I am no opponent of criticism. I am no dogmatist, and do
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not feel myself touched by the critics tooth with which he tears the dogmatist to
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pieces. If I were a dogmatist, I should place at the header dogma
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i e. A thought, an idea, a principle, and should complete
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this as a systematist, spinning it out to a system, a structure of
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thought. Conversely, if I were a critic viz. A v an opponent
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of the dogmatist, I should carry on the fight of free thinking against the
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enthralling thought. I should defend thinking against what was thought. But I am
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neither the champion of a thought nor the champion of thinking. For I from
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whom I start am not a thought, nor do I consist in thinking against
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me the unnameable. The realm of thoughts, thinking, and mind is shattered
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criticism is the possessed man's fight against possession as such, against all possession,
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a fight which is founded in the consciousness that everywhere possession, or as the
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critic calls it, a religious and theological attitude, is extant. He knows
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that people stand in a religious believing attitude not only toward God, but toward
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other ideas as well, like right the state law. He recognizes possession in
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all places. So he wants to break up thoughts by thinking. But I
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say, only thoughtlessness really saves me from thoughts, which is not thinking,
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but my thoughtlessness or I the unthinkable, incomprehensible that frees me from possession.
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A jerk does me the service of the most anxious thinking. A stretching of
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the limbs shakes off the torment of thoughts. A leap upward hills from my
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breast the nightmare of the religious world. A jubilant hoopoler throws off year long
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burdens. But the monstrous significance of unthinking jubilation could not be recognized in the
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long night of thinking and believing. What clumsiness and frivolity to want to solve
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the most difficult problems acquit yourself of the most comprehensive tasks by breaking off.
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But have you tasks if you do not set them to yourself? So long
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as you set them, you will not give them up. And I certainly
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do not care if you think and thinking create a thousand thoughts. But you,
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who have set the tasks, are you not to be able to upset
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them again? Must you be bound to these tasks? And must they become
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absolute tasks? To cite only one thing, the government has been disparaged on
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account of its resorting to forcible means against thoughts, interfering against the press by
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means of the police power of the censorship, and making a personal fight out
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of a literary one, as if it were solely a matter of thoughts,
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and as if one's attitude toward thoughts must be unselfish, self denying, and
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self sacrificing. Do not these thoughts attack the governing parties and so call out
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egoism? And do the thinkers not set before the attacked ones the religious demand
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to reverence the power of thought of ideas, They are to succumb voluntarily and
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resignedly, because the divine power of thought Minerva fights on their enemy's side.
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Why that would be an act of possession, a religious sacrifice. To be
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sure, the governing parties are themselves held fast in a religious bias, and
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follow the leading power of an idea or a faith. But they are at
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the same time unconfessed egoists, and right there against the enemy. They're pent
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up egoism, breaks loose, possessed in their faith. They are at the
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same time unpossessed by their opponent's faith, i e. They are egoists.
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Towards this, if one wants to make them a reproach, it could only
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be the converse to wit, that they are possessed by their ideas against thoughts,
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no egoistic power is to appear, no police power, etc. So
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the believers in thinking believe, But thinking and its thoughts are not sacred to
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me, and I defend my skin against them, as against other things.
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That may be an unreasonable defense. But if I am in duty bound to
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reason, then I, like Abraham, must sacrifice my dearest to it.
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In the kingdom of thought, which like that of faith, is the kingdom
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of heaven, everyone is assuredly wrong who uses unthinking force, just as everyone
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is wrong who in the kingdom of love behaves unlovingly, although he is a
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Christian and therefore lives in the Kingdom of Love, yet acts unchristianly in these
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kingdoms to which he supposes himself to belong, though he nevertheless throws off their
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laws. He is a sinner or egoist. But it is only when he
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becomes a criminal against these kingdoms that he can throw off their dominion. Here
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too, the result is this that the fight of the thinkers against the government
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is indeed in the right, namely in might, so far as it is
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carried on against the government's thoughts. The government is dumb and does not succeed
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in making any literary joinder to speak of, but is, on the other
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hand, in the wrong to wit in impotence, so far as it does
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not succeed in bringing to the field anything but thoughts. Against a personal power,
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the egoistic power stops the mouth of the thinkers. The theoretical fight cannot
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complete the victory, and the sacred power of thought succumbs to the might of
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egoism. Only the egoistic fight. The fight of egoists on both sides,
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clears up everything. This lasts now to make thinking an affair of egoistic option.
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An affair of the single person note original German einsigen and note a mere
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pastime or hobby, as it were, and to take from it the importance
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of being the last decisive power, This degradation and desecration of thinking, this
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equalization of the unthinking and thoughtful ego. At this clumsy but real equality,
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criticism is not able to produce because it itself is only the priest of thinking
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and sees nothing beyond thinking. But the deluge criticism does indeed affirm e g.
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That free criticism may overcome the state. But at the same time it
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defends itself against the approach which is laid upon it by the state government.
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That it is self will and impudence. It thinks, then that self will
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and impudence may not overcome it alone. May The truth is rather the reverse.
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The state can be really overcome only by impudent self will. It may.
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Now, to conclude with this, be clear that in the critics new
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change of front, he has not transformed himself, but only made good and
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oversight disentangled a subject, and is saying too much when he speaks of criticism
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criticizing itself it or rather he has only criticized its oversight and cleared it of
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its inconsistencies. If he wanted to criticize criticism, he would have to look
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and see if there was anything in its presupposition. I own my part,
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start from a presupposition, in presupposing myself. But my presupposition does not struggle
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for its perfection, like man struggling for his perfection. It only serves me
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to enjoy it and consume it. I consume my presupposition and nothing else,
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and exist only in consuming it. But that presupposition is therefore not a pre
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supposition at all. For as I am the unique, I know nothing of
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the duality of a presupposing and a presupposed ego, an incomplete and a complete
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ego or man. But this that I consume myself means only that I am.
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I do not presuppose myself, because I am every moment just positing or
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creating myself, And am I only by being not presupposed, but posited and
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again posited only in the moment when I posit myself. I am creator and
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creature in one. If the presuppositions that have hitherto been current are to melt
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away in a full dissolution, they must not be dissolved into a higher presupposition.
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Again I a thought or thinking self criticism for that dissolution is to be
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from my good. Otherwise it would belong only in the series of the innumerable
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dissolutions which, in favor of others e g. This very man, God,
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the state, pure morality, etc. Declared old truths to be untruths
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and did away with long fostered presuppositions. End of Section seventeen. Humane Liberalism, Part three