Now the tendency of this metaphysical and moral teaching was strongly
democratic and socialistic. There was said to be in the existing
political system a false transcendency identical with that of the
current religious system. King and council hovered high and away above
the real life of society in a world of their own, looking on political
power as a kind of private property, and careless of mankind, from whom
it sprang, to whom it belonged, and by whom and for whom it should be
administered. "The princes are gods," says Feuerbach, "and they must
share the same fate. The dissolution of theology into anthropology in
the field of thought is the dissolution of monarchy into republic in the
field of politics. Dualism, separation is the essence of theology;
dualism, separation is the essence of monarchy. There we have the
antithesis of God and world; here we have the antithesis of State and
people." This dualism must be abolished. The State must be
_humanized_--must be made an instrument in the hands of all for the
welfare of all; and its inhabitants must be _politized_, for they, all
of them, constitute the _polis_. Man must no longer be a means, but must
be everywhere and always an end. There was nobody above man; there was
neither superhuman person, nor consecrated, person; neither deity, nor
divine right. And, on the other hand, as there is no person who in being
or right is more than man, so there must be no person who is less. There
must be no _unmenschen_, no slaves, no heretics, no outcasts, no
outlaws, but every being who wears human flesh must be placed in the
enjoyment of the full rights and privileges of man. The will of man be
done, hallowed be his name.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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