On the other side, this is nothing but a hallucination of vision. For
the individual's might becomes permanent and a right only by others
joining their might with his. The delusion consists in their believing
that they cannot withdraw their might. The same phenomenon over again;
might is separated from me. I cannot take back the might that I gave to
the possessor. One has "granted power of attorney," has given away his
power, has renounced coming to a better mind.
The proprietor can give up his might and his right to a thing by giving
the thing away, squandering it, and the like. And _we_ should not be
able likewise to let go the might that we lend to him?
The rightful man, the _just_, desires to call nothing his own that he
does not have "rightly" or have the right to, and therefore only
_legitimate property_.
Now, who is to be judge, and adjudge his right to him? At last, surely,
Man, who imparts to him the rights of man: then he can say, in an
infinitely broader sense than Terence, _humani nihil a me alienum puto_,
_i. e._ the _human is my property_. However he may go about it, so long
as he occupies this standpoint he cannot get clear of a judge; and in
our time the multifarious judges that had been selected have set
themselves against each other in two persons at deadly enmity,--to wit,
in God and Man. The one party appeal to divine right, the other to human
right or the rights of man.
So much is clear, that in neither case does the individual do the
entitling himself.
Just pick me out an action to-day that would not be a violation of
right! Every moment the rights of man are trampled under foot by one
side, while their opponents cannot open their mouth without uttering a
blasphemy against divine right. Give an alms, you mock at a right of
man, because the relation of beggar and benefactor is an inhuman
relation; utter a doubt, you sin against a divine right. Eat dry bread
with contentment, you violate the right of man by your equanimity; eat
it with discontent, you revile divine right by your repining. There is
not one among you who does not commit a crime at every moment; your
speeches are crimes, and every hindrance to your freedom of speech is no
less a crime. Ye are criminals altogether!
Yet you are so only in that you all stand on the _ground of right_;
_i. e._, in that you do not even know, and understand how to value, the
fact that you are criminals.
Inviolable or _sacred_ property has grown on this very ground: it is a
_juridical concept_.
A dog sees the bone in another's power, and stands off only if it feels
itself too weak. But man respects the other's _right_ to his bone. The
latter action, therefore, ranks as _human_, the former as _brutal_ or
"egoistic."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account