Sex & Character: Authorised Translation from the Sixth German EditionWeininger, Otto
Philosophy
Sex & Character: Authorised Translation from the Sixth German Edition
Weininger, Otto
Character; Sex; Sex (Psychology); Sexual ethics
I desire at this point again to lay stress on the fact, although it
should be self-evident, that, in spite of my low estimate of the Jew,
nothing could be further from my intention than to lend the faintest
support to any practical or theoretical persecution of Jews. I am
dealing with Judaism, in the platonic sense, as an idea. There is no
more an absolute Jew than an absolute Christian. I am not speaking
against the individual, whom, indeed, if that had been so, I should have
wounded grossly and unnecessarily. Watchwords, such as “Buy only from
Christians,” have in reality a Jewish taint; they have a meaning only
for those who regard the race and not the individual, and what is to be
compared with them is the Jewish use of the word “Goy,” which is now
almost obsolete. I have no wish to boycott the Jew, or by any such
immoral means to attempt to solve the Jewish question. Nor will Zionism
solve that question; as H. S. Chamberlain has pointed out, since the
destruction of the Temple at Jerusalem, Judaism has ceased to be
national, and has become a spreading parasite, straggling all over the
earth and finding true root nowhere. Before Zionism is possible, the Jew
must first conquer Judaism.
To defeat Judaism, the Jew must first understand himself, and war
against himself. So far, the Jew has reached no further than to make and
enjoy jokes against his own peculiarities. Unconsciously he respects the
Aryan more than himself. Only steady resolution, united to the highest
self-respect, can free the Jew from Jewishness. This resolution, be it
ever so strong, ever so honourable, can only be understood and carried
out by the individual, not by the group. Therefore the Jewish question
can only be solved individually; every single Jew must try to solve it
in his proper person.
There is no other solution to the question and can be no other; Zionism
will never succeed in answering it.
The Jew, indeed, who has overcome, the Jew who has become a Christian,
has the fullest right to be regarded by the Aryan in his individual
capacity, and no longer be condemned as belonging to a race above which
his moral efforts have raised him. He may rest assured that no one will
dispute his well-founded claim. The Aryan of good social standing always
feels the need to respect the Jew; his Antisemitism being no joy, no
amusement to him. Therefore he is displeased when Jews make revelations
about Jews, and he who does so may expect as few thanks from that
quarter as from over-sensitive Judaism itself. Above all, the Aryan
desires that the Jew should justify Antisemitism by being baptized. But
the danger of this outward acknowledgment of his inward struggles need
not trouble the Jew who wishes for liberty within him. He will long to
reach the holy baptism of the Spirit, of which that of the body is but
the outward symbol.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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