Latest / The Philosophy Insights Collection / 24 - My Intercourse - part 1 - The Ego and His Own - Max Stirner

Transcript

24 - My Intercourse - part 1 - The Ego and His Own - Max Stirner · The Philosophy Insights Collection

0:00
My power, my intercourse Part one. In society, the human demands at
0:07
most can be satisfied, while the egoistic must always come short, because it
0:13
can hardly escape anybody that the present shows no such living interest in any question.
0:19
As in a social one has to direct his gaze, especially to society.
0:25
Nay, if the interest felt in it were less passionate and dazzled,
0:30
people would not so much in looking at society lose sight of the individuals in
0:36
it, and would recognize that a society cannot become new so long as those
0:42
who form and constitute it remain the old ones. If e g. There
0:48
was to arise in the Jewish people a society which should spread a new faith
0:54
over the earth, these apostles could in no case remain parises. As you
1:00
are, so you present yourself, so you behave toward men, a hypocrite
1:06
as a hypocrite, a Christian as a Christian. Therefore, the character of
1:11
a society is determined by the character of its members. They are its creators,
1:19
so much at least one must perceive, even if one were not willing
1:23
to put to the test the concept society itself, ever, far from letting
1:30
themselves come to their full development and consequence, Men have hitherto not been able
1:37
to found the societies on themselves, or rather, they have been able only
1:42
to found societies and to live in societies. The societies were always persons,
1:51
powerful persons, so called moral persons, by e ghosts, before which the
1:57
individual had the appropriate will in his head the fear of ghosts. As such
2:05
ghosts, they may most suitably be designated by the respective names people and people.
2:12
Let the people of the Patriarchs, the people of Helene's, etc.
2:17
At the last, the people of men mankind amachoaris plutes was enthusiastic for the
2:27
nation of mankind. Then every subdivision of this people which could and must have
2:34
its special societies, the Spanish, French people, et cetera. Within it
2:38
again classes, cities, in short, all kinds of corporations. Lastly,
2:45
tapering to the finest point, the little people let of the family. Hence,
2:51
instead of saying that the person that walked as ghosts in all societies hitherto
2:57
has been the people, there might also have been named the two extremes,
3:01
to wit, either mankind or the family, both the most natural born units.
3:08
We choose the word people because its devoration has been brought into connection with
3:15
the Greek peloe, the many or the masses, but still more because national
3:21
efforts are at present the order of the day, and because even the newest
3:27
mutineers have not yet shaken off its deceptive person. Although on the other hand,
3:32
the latter consideration must give the preference to the expression mankind, since on
3:39
all sides they are going in for enthusiasm over mankind. The people, then
3:46
mankind or the family have hitherto. As it seems played history, no egoistic
3:53
interest was to come up in these societies, but solely general ones, national
4:00
or popular interests, class interests, family interests, and general human interests.
4:06
But who has brought to their fall the peoples who decline? History relates who
4:13
but the egoists, who was seeking his satisfaction. If once an egoist's interest
4:19
crept in, the society was corrupted and moved towards its dissolution, as rome
4:27
E g proves, with its highly developed system of private rights, or Christianity,
4:32
with the incessantively breaking in rational self determination, self consciousness, the autonomy
4:41
of the spirit, etc. The Christian people has produced two societies whose duration
4:48
will keep equal measures with the permanence of bad people of these societies, state
4:56
and church? Can they be called a union of egoists? Do we in
5:00
them pursue an egoistic personal own interest? Or do we pursue a popular i
5:06
e. An interest of the Christian people? To wit, a state and
5:12
church interest? Can I, and may I be myself in them? Nay?
5:17
I think an act as I will? May I reveal myself, live
5:23
myself out, busy myself. Must I not leave untouched the majesty of the
5:29
state, the sensity of the Church. Well, I may not do so
5:34
as I will? But shall I find in any society such an unmeasured freedom
5:40
of maying? Certainly? Know accordingly we might be content not a bit.
5:46
It is a different thing whether I rebound from an ego or form of people
5:51
a generalization. There I am my opponent's opponent, born his equal. Here
6:00
I am a despised opponent, bound and under a guardian. There I stand
6:05
man to man. Here I am a schoolboy who can accomplish nothing against his
6:11
comrade, because the latter has called father and mother to aid and has crept
6:16
under the apron While I am well scolded as an ill bred brat. And
6:23
I must not argue there I felt against a bodily enemy, here against mankind,
6:30
against a generalization, against a majesty, against a spook. But to
6:35
me, no majesty, nothing sacred, is a limit, nothing that I
6:42
know how to overpower. Only that which I cannot overpower, still limit my
6:47
might, and I of limited might, and temporarily a limited eye, not
6:54
limited by the might outside me, but limited by my own skilled deficion right
7:00
by my own impotence. However, the God dies but does not surrender.
7:06
Above all only a bodily opponent. I dare meet every foreman whom I can
7:14
see and measure with mine eye, metal fires, my metal for the fight,
7:19
etc. Many privileges have indeed been canceled with time, but solely for
7:26
the sake of the common will of their state, and state will by no
7:30
means for the strengthening of me. Vassilage e g. Was abrogated only that
7:38
a single liege lord, the lord of the people, the monarchical power might
7:44
be strengthened. Bassalage under the one became yet more vigorous. Thereby only in
7:51
favor of the monarch, be he called prince or law, have privileges fallen.
7:58
In France. The citizens are not indeed vassals of the king, but
8:01
are instead vassals of the law. The charter subordination was retained only the Christian
8:09
state recognized that man cannot serve two masters, the lord of the manner and
8:15
the prince. Therefore one obtained all the prerogatives. Now he can again place
8:20
one above another. He can make men in high place. But of what
8:26
concern to me is the common wal? The common wal as such is not
8:31
my will, but only the fairthest extremity of self denunciation. The common wal
8:37
may cheer aloud, while I must gang. The state may shine. Will
8:41
I starve in what lies the folly of the political liberals, but in their
8:48
opposing the people to the government and talking of people's rights. So there is
8:54
the people going to be of age, et cetera. As if one who
8:58
has no maug could be wounded, only the individual is able to be wounded.
9:05
Thus the whole question of the liberty of the press is turned upside down.
9:11
When it is made claim to as a right of the people, it
9:16
is only a right, or better the might of the individual. If a
9:20
people has liberty of the press, then I, although in the midst of
9:24
this people have it, not a liberty of the people is not my liberty.
9:31
And the liberty of the press, as a liberty of the people,
9:33
must have at its side a press law directed against me. This must be
9:41
insisted on all a rank against the present day efforts for liberty. Liberty of
9:46
the people is not my liberty. Let us admit these categories liberty of the
9:52
people and right of the people e g. The right of the people that
9:58
everybody may their arms? Does one not forfeit such a right? One cannot
10:03
forfeit his own right, but may well forfeit a right that belongs not to
10:09
me but to the people. I may be locked up for the sake of
10:13
the liberty of the people. I may, under sentence, incur the loss
10:18
of the right to their arms. Liberalism appears as the last attempt at a
10:24
creation of the liberty of the people, a liberty of the commune, of
10:30
society, of the general of mankind, the dream of a humanity, a
10:35
people, a commune, a society that shall be of age. A people
10:43
cannot be free otherwise than at the individual's expense. For it is not the
10:48
individual that is the main point in this liberty, but the people. The
10:54
three of the people, the more bound the individual people precisely at its freest
11:01
time, created ostracism, banished the atheists, poisoned the most honest thinker.
11:09
How did they place Socrates for his conscientiousness which makes him resist the advice to
11:16
get away from the dungeon. He is a fool that he concedes to the
11:22
Athenians a right to condemn him. Therefore it certainly serves him right. Why
11:28
then, does he remain standing on an equal footing with the Athenians? Why
11:33
does he not wreak with them? Had he known and been able to know
11:39
what he was, he would have conceded to such judges. No claim,
11:43
no right. That he did not escape was just his weakness, his delusion
11:48
of still having something in common with the Athenians, or the opinion that he
11:54
was a member, a mere member of the people. But he was rather
12:00
this people itself in person, and could only be his own judge. There
12:05
was no judge over him. As he himself had really pronounced a public sentence
12:11
on himself and made it himself worthy of the pritenum, he should have stopped
12:16
to that, And as he had uttered no sentence of death against himself,
12:22
should have despised that of Athenians too, and escaped. But he subordinated himself
12:28
and recognized in the people his judge. He seemed little to himself before the
12:33
majesty of the people. That he subjected himself to might, to which alone
12:39
he could succumb as to a right, was treason against himself. It was
12:45
virtue to Christ, who, it is alleged, reframed from using the power
12:50
over his heavenly legions. The same scrupuliness is thereby ascribed by the narrators.
12:58
Lufer did very well, unwisely to have the safety of his journey to worms
13:03
wanted to him in black and white. And Socrates should have known that the
13:09
Indians were his enemies, he alone his judge. The self perception of a
13:15
reign of law, etc. Should have given way to the perception that the
13:20
relation was a relation of might. It was with pettifoggery and intrigues that weak
13:26
liberty ended. Why because the ordinary breaks could still less attain that logical conclusion,
13:33
But not even their hero of thought, Socrates was able to draw what
13:39
then is pettifoggery but a way of utilizing something established without doing away with it,
13:46
I might add, for one's own advantage. But you see that lies
13:52
in utilizing such pettifoggers are the theologians who rest and force God's work. What
14:01
would they have to rest if it were not for the established word of God.
14:05
So those liberals who only shake and bless the established order, they all
14:11
are perverters, like those perverters of the law. Socrates recognized law right.
14:18
The Greeks consistently retained the authority of right and law. If with this recognition
14:24
they wanted, nevertheless to assert their advantage everyone his aim, then they had
14:31
to seek in it perversion of the law or intrigue. Earlsipid Days and Intruger
14:37
of Genius introduces the period of Athian decay. The Spartan, Bysander and others
14:46
show that intrigue had become universally Greek. Greek law, on which the Greek
14:52
states rested, had to be perverted and undermined by the egoists within these states,
14:58
and the states went down that the individuals might become free. The Greek
15:03
people felt because the individuals cared less for this people than for themselves. In
15:09
general, all states, constitutions, churches have sunk by the secession of individuals.
15:16
For the individual is the irreconceivable enemy of every generality, every tie,
15:24
eg, every fetter. Yet people fancy to this day that man needs sacred
15:30
ties, he the deadly enemy of every tie. The history of the world
15:35
shows that no tie has yet remained unwant shows that man tiresly defends himself against
15:41
ties of every sort. And yet blinded people think up new ties again and
15:48
again, and think eg that they have arrived at the right one. If
15:54
one puts upon them the tie of a so called free constitution, a beautiful
16:00
constitutional tie, decoration libbons, the ties of confidence ducing gradually to have become
16:07
somewhat infirm. But people have made no further progress Thane from apn strings to
16:14
garters and colors. Everything sacred is a tie, a fetter. Everything sacred
16:21
is and must be perverted by the verters of the law. Therefore, our
16:25
present time has multitudes of such perverters in all spheres. They are propelling the
16:30
way for the breakup of law for lawlessness. More Athenians who are accused of
16:37
petropoggory and sophistery, poor alcathedes of intrigue. Why that was just your best
16:45
point, your first step in freedom, Your atheists, Herotus et. Cetera,
16:52
only wanted to have of three Greek people. You were the first to
16:56
summize something of your freedom. People repressed those who tell above its majesty by
17:03
ostracism against two powerful citizens, by the inquisition against the heretics of the church,
17:11
by their inquisition against traitors in the state for the people is concerned only
17:18
with its self assertion. It demands patriotic self sacrifice from everybody to it.
17:25
Accordingly, everyone in himself is indifferent and nothing, and it cannot do,
17:32
not even suffer what the individual and he alone must do to wit turn him
17:37
to account. Every people, every state is unjust towards the egoists. As
17:45
long as there still exists even one institution which the individual may not dissolve,
17:52
the inness and self opprochuance of me is still very remote. How can I,
17:57
e g. Be free when I must find myself by oath to a
18:03
constitution, a charter and law, by body and soul to my people.
18:08
How can I be my own when my faculties may develop only as far as
18:14
they do not disturb the harmony of society. Waiting the fall of peoples and
18:21
mankind will invite me to my rise. Listen even as I am writing this,
18:27
the follows begin to sound, that they may jingle in for tomorrow the
18:32
festival of a thousand years existence of our dear Germany. Sound sound is hell?
18:40
You do sound solemn enough, as if your tongue was moved by the
18:45
presentiments that it is given convoy to a corpse. The German people and German
18:51
peoples have behind them a history of a thousand years. What a long life.
18:56
Oh go to rest, never to rise again, had only become free
19:02
whom you so long have held in fetters. The people is dead. Up
19:07
with me, O, thou, my much tormented German people? What was
19:12
thy torment? It was the torment of a thought that cannot create itself a
19:18
body, the torment of a walking spirit that dissolves into nothing at every cock
19:23
crow, and yet find for deliverance and fulfillment in me too. Thou hast
19:30
lived long, though, dear thought, Thou dear spook. Already I almost
19:36
fancied I had found the world of thy deliverance, discovered flesh and those with
19:41
a wandering sprint. Then I hear them sound the bows that usher thee into
19:47
eternal rest. Then the last hope fades out. Then the notes of the
19:52
last love guy away. Then I depart from the desolate house of those who
19:57
now are dead, and enter at the door of the living one. For
20:02
only he who is alive is in the right. Farewell thou, dream of
20:07
so many millions. Farewell thou who hast chreinized over their children for one thousand
20:14
years. Tomorrow they carry THEE to the grave. Soon, by sister,
20:18
the peoples will follow thee. But when they have all followed, then mankind
20:25
is buried, and I am my own. I am the laughing heir.
20:30
The word gellschaft society has its origin in the word south hall. If one
20:38
hole encloses many persons, then the hole causes these persons to be in a
20:44
society. They are in society, and at most constitute a parlor society by
20:51
talking in the traditional forms of parlor speech. When it comes to real intercourse,
20:57
this is to be regarded as independent of society. It may occur or
21:03
be lacking without altering the nature of what is named society. Those who are
21:08
in the hall are a society even as mute persons, or when they put
21:15
each other off solely with empty phases of curtsy. Intercourse is mutually. It
21:21
is the action the commiseum of individuals. Society is only community of the hall,
21:29
and even the statues of a museum hall are in society. They are
21:33
brute. People are accustomed to say they have an I'm this hall in common.
21:41
But the case is, rather than the whole has us in or in
21:47
it, so far the natural signification of the word society. In this it
21:53
comes out that society is not generated by me and you, but by a
21:57
third factor which makes associations out of us too, And that it is just
22:03
this third factor that is the creative one, that which creates society. Just
22:10
so a prison society or a prison companionship those who enjoyed the same prison.
22:17
Here we already hit upon a third factor fuller of significance, and was the
22:22
merely local one. The whole prison, no, on their means, is
22:26
space only, but a space with express reference to its inhabitants, For it
22:33
is a prison only through being destined for prisoners, without whom it would be
22:38
a mere building. What gives a common stamp to those who have gathered in
22:44
it? Evidently the prison, Since it is only by means of the prison
22:48
that they are prisoners. What then, determines the manner or life of the
22:53
prison society the prison what determines their intercourse prison too. Perhaps, certainly they
23:02
can enter upon intercourse only as prisoners, i e. Only so far as
23:07
the prison laws allow it, But that they themselves hold intercourse I with you.
23:15
This the prison cannot bring to pass. On the contrary, it must
23:18
have an eye to guarding against such egoistic, purely personal intercourse. And only
23:26
as such is it really intercourse between me and you, that we jointly execute
23:32
a job, run a machine, effectuate anything in general. For this a
23:37
prison role indeed provide, But that I forget that I am a prisoner and
23:42
engage in intercourse with you, who likewise disregard it brings danger to the prison,
23:48
and not only cannot be caused by it, but must not even be
23:52
permitted. For this reason is saintly a moral minded French chamber decides to introduce
24:00
solitary confinement, and other saints will do the like in order to cut off
24:06
de moralizing intercourse. Imprisonment is the established and sacred condition to endure, which
24:14
no attempt must be made. The slightest push of that kind is punishable,
24:19
as is every uprising against the sacred thing by which man is to be charmed
24:25
and chained. Like the whole, the prison does form a society, a
24:30
companionship, a communion e g. Communion of labour, but no intercourse,
24:37
no reciprocity, no union. On the contrary, every union in the prison
24:42
bears within it the dangerous seed of a plot, which, under favorable circumstances
24:48
might spring up and bear fruit. Yet one does not usually enter the prison
24:53
voluntarily, and seldom remains in it voluntarily either, but cherishes the eagerluistic desire
25:00
for liberty. Here. Therefore, it sooner becomes manifest that personal intercourse is
25:07
in hostile relations to the prison society, and turns to the dissolution of this
25:12
very society, this joint inclination. End of Section twenty four