The Ego and his Own - Max Stirner (ebook reader screen .TXT) 📗
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the circle of liberalism, which has its good principle in man and human
liberty, its bad in the, egoist and everything private, its God in the former,
its devil in the latter, rounds itself off completely; and, if the special or
private person lost his value in the State (no personal prerogative), if in
the "laborers' or ragamuffins' society" special (private) property is no
longer recognized, so in "human society" everything special or private will be
left out of account; and, when "pure criticism" shall have accomplished its
arduous task, then it will be known just what we must look upon as private,
and what, "penetrated with a sense of our nothingness," we must -- let stand.
Because State and Society do not suffice for humane liberalism, it negates
both, and at the same time retains them. So at one time the cry is that the
task of the day is "not a political, but a social, one," and then again the
"free State" is promised for the future. In truth, "human society" is both --
the most general State and the most general society. Only against the limited
State is it asserted that it makes too much stir about spiritual private
interests (e. g. people's religious belief), and against limited society
that it makes too much of material private interests. Both are to leave
private interests to private people, and, as human society, concern themselves
solely about general human interests.
The politicians, thinking to abolish personal will, self-will or
arbitrariness, did not observe that through property(79) our self-will(80)
gained a secure place of refuge.
The Socialists, taking away property too, do not notice that this secures
itself a continued existence in self-ownership. Is it only money and goods,
then, that are a property. or is every opinion something of mine, something of
my own?
So every opinion must be abolished or made impersonal. The person is
entitled to no opinion, but, as self-will was transferred to the State,
property to society, so opinion too must be transferred to something
general, "Man," and thereby become a general human opinion.
If opinion persists, then I have my God (why, God exists only as "my God," he
is an opinion or my "faith"), and consequently my faith, my religion, my
thoughts, my ideals. Therefore a general human faith must come into existence,
the "fanaticism of liberty." For this would be a faith that agreed with the
"essence of man," and, because only "man" is reasonable (you and I might be
very unreasonable!), a reasonable faith.
As self-will and property become powerless, so must self-ownership or egoism
in general.
In this supreme development of "free man" egoism, self-ownership, is combated
on principle, and such subordinate ends as the social "welfare" of the
Socialists, etc., vanish before the lofty "idea of humanity." Everything that
is not a "general human" entity is something separate, satisfies only some or
one; or, if it satisfies all, it does this to them only as individuals, not as
men, and is therefore called "egoistic."
To the Socialists welfare is still the supreme aim, as free rivalry was
the approved thing to the political liberals; now welfare is free too, and we
are free to achieve welfare, just as he who wanted to enter into rivalry
(competition) was free to do so.
But to take part in the rivalry you need only to be commoners; to take part
in the welfare, only to be laborers. Neither reaches the point of being
synonymous with "man." It is "truly well" with man only when he is also
"intellectually free!" For man is mind: therefore all powers that are alien to
him, the mind -- all superhuman, heavenly, unhuman powers -- must be
overthrown and the name "man" must be above every name.
So in this end of the modern age (age of the moderns) there returns again, as
the main point, what had been the main point at its beginning: "intellectual
liberty."
To the Communist in particular the humane liberal says: If society prescribes
to you your activity, then this is indeed free from the influence of the
individual, i.e. the egoist, but it still does not on that account need to
be a purely human activity, nor you to be a complete organ of humanity. What
kind of activity society demands of you remains accidental, you know; it
might give you a place in building a temple or something of that sort, or,
even if not that, you might yet on your own impulse be active for something
foolish, therefore unhuman; yes, more yet, you really labor only to nourish
yourself, in general to live, for dear life's sake, not for the glorification
of humanity. Consequently free activity is not attained till you make yourself
free from all stupidities, from everything non-human, i.e., egoistic
(pertaining only to the individual, not to the Man in the individual),
dissipate all untrue thoughts that obscure man or the idea of humanity: in
short, when you are not merely unhampered in your activity, but the substance
too of your activity is only what is human, and you live and work only for
humanity. But this is not the case so long as the aim of your effort is only
your welfare and that of all; what you do for the society of ragamuffins is
not yet anything done for "human society."
Laboring does not alone make you a man, because it is something formal and its
object accidental; the question is who you that labor are. As far as laboring
goes, you might do it from an egoistic (material) impulse, merely to procure
nourishment and the like; it must be a labor furthering humanity, calculated
for the good of humanity, serving historical (i.e. human) evolution -- in
short, a human labor. This implies two things: one, that it be useful to
humanity; next, that it be the work of a "man." The first alone may be the
case with every labor, as even the labors of nature, e. g. of animals, are
utilized by humanity for the furthering of science, etc.; the second requires
that he who labors should know the human object of his labor; and, as he can
have this consciousness only when he knows himself as man, the crucial
condition is -- self-consciousness.
Unquestionably much is already attained when you cease to be a
"fragment-laborer,"(81) yet therewith you only get a view of the whole of your
labor, and acquire a consciousness about it, which is still far removed from a
self-consciousness, a consciousness about your true "self" or "essence," Man.
The laborer has still remaining the desire for a "higher consciousness,"
which, because the activity of labor is unable to quiet it, he satisfies in a
leisure hour. Hence leisure stands by the side of his labor, and he sees
himself compelled to proclaim labor and idling human in one breath, yes, to
attribute the true elevation to the idler, the leisure-enjoyer. He labors only
to get rid of labor; he wants to make labor free, only that he may be free
from labor.
In fine, his work has no satisfying substance, because it is only imposed by
society, only a stint, a task, a calling; and, conversely, his society does
not satisfy, because it gives only work.
His labor ought to satisfy him as a man; instead of that, it satisfies
society; society ought to treat him as a man, and it treats him as -- a
rag-tag laborer, or a laboring ragamuffin.
Labor and society are of use to him not as he needs them as a man, but only as
he needs them as an "egoist."
Such is the attitude of criticism toward labor. It points to "mind," wages the
war "of mind with the masses,"(82) and pronounces communistic labor
unintellectual mass-labor. Averse to labor as they are, the masses love to
make labor easy for themselves. In literature, which is today furnished in
mass, this aversion to labor begets the universally-known superficiality,
which puts from it "the toil of research."(83)
Therefore humane liberalism says: You want labor; all right, we want it
likewise, but we want it in the fullest measure. We want it, not that we may
gain spare time, but that we may find all satisfaction in it itself. We want
labor because it is our self-development.
But then the labor too must be adapted to that end! Man is honored only by
human, self-conscious labor, only by the labor that has for its end no
"egoistic" purpose, but Man, and is Man's self-revelation; so that the saying
should be laboro, ergo sum, I labor, therefore I am a man. The humane
liberal wants that labor of the mind which works up all material; he wants
the mind, that leaves no thing quiet or in its existing condition, that
acquiesces in nothing, analyzes everything, criticises anew every result that
has been gained. This restless mind is the true laborer, it obliterates
prejudices, shatters limits and narrownesses, and raises man above everything
that would like to dominate over him, while the Communist labors only for
himself, and not even freely, but from necessity, -- in short, represents a
man condemned to hard labor.
The laborer of such a type is not "egoistic," because he does not labor for
individuals, neither for himself nor for other individuals, not for private
men therefore, but for humanity and its progress: he does not ease individual
pains, does not care for individual wants, but removes limits within which
humanity is pressed, dispels prejudices which dominate an entire time,
vanquishes hindrances that obstruct the path of all, clears away errors in
which men entangle themselves, discovers truths which are found through him
for all and for all time; in short -- he lives and labors for humanity.
Now, in the first place, the discoverer of a great truth doubtless knows that
it can be useful to the rest of men, and, as a jealous withholding furnishes
him no enjoyment, he communicates it; but, even though he has the
consciousness that his communication is highly valuable to the rest, yet he
has in no wise sought and found his truth for the sake of the rest, but for
his own sake, because he himself desired it, because darkness and fancies left
him no rest till he had procured for himself light and enlightenment to the
best of his powers.
He labors, therefore, for his own sake and for the satisfaction of his want.
That along with this he was also useful to others, yes, to posterity, does not
take from his labor the egoistic character.
In the next place, if he did labor only on his own account, like the rest, why
should his act be human, those of the rest unhuman, i. e., egoistic? Perhaps
because this book, painting, symphony, etc., is the labor of his whole being,
because he has done his best in it, has spread himself out wholly and is
wholly to
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