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136
THE EGO AND HIS OWN
is the nation, the "State.'" What had the indi-
vidual now become ? A political Protestant, for
he had come into immediate connection with his God,
the State. He was no longer, as an aristocrat, in the
monarchy of the nobility ; as a mechanic, in the mon-
archy of the guild ; but he, like all, recognized and
acknowledged only--one lord, the State, as whose ser-
vants they all received the equal title of honor,
" citizen."
The bourgeoisie is the aristocracy of
DESERT
; its
motto, " Let desert wear its crowns." It fought
against the " lazy " aristocracy, for according to it
(the industrious aristocracy acquired by industry and
desert) it is not the " born " who is free, nor yet I who
am free either, but the " deserving" man, the honest
servant (of his king; of the State; of the people in
constitutional States). Through service one acquires
freedom, i. e. acquires "deserts," even if one served--
mammon. One must deserve well of the State, i. e.
of the principle of the State, of its moral spirit. He
who serves this spirit of the State is a good citizen, let
him live to whatever honest branch of industry he
will. In its eyes innovators practise a " breadless
art." Only the "shopkeeper" is "practical," and the
spirit that chases after public offices is as much the
shopkeeping spirit as is that which tries in trade to
feather its nest or otherwise to become useful to itself
and anybody else.
But, if the deserving count as the free (for what
does the comfortable commoner, the faithful office-
holder, lack of that freedom that his heart desires ?),
then the " servants " are the--free. The obedient
MEN OF THE OLD TIME AND THE NEW 137
servant is the free man ! What glaring nonsense !
Yet this is the sense of the bourgeoisie, and its poet,
Goethe, as well as its philosopher, Hegel, succeeded in
glorifying the dependence of the subject on the object,
obedience to the objective world, etc. He who only
serves the cause, " devotes himself entirely to it, " has
the true freedom. And among thinkers the cause was
--reason, that which, like State and Church, gives--
general laws, and puts the individual man in irons by
the thought of humanity. It determines what is
" true," according to which one must then act. No
more " rational " people than the honest servants, who
primarily are called good citizens as servants of the
State.
Be rich as Croesus or poor as Job--the State of the
commonalty leaves that to your option; but only have
a " good disposition." This it demands of you, and
counts it its most urgent task to establish this in all.
Therefore it will keep you from " evil promptings,"
holding the "ill-disposed " in check and silencing
their inflammatory discourses under censors' cancel-
ling-marks or press-penalties and behind dungeon
walls, and will, on the other hand, appoint people of
"good disposition" as censors, and in every way have
a moral influence exerted on you by " well-disposed
and well-meaning" people. If it has made you deaf
to evil promptings, then it opens your ears again all
the more diligently to good promptings.
With the time of the bourgeoisie begins that of lib-
eralism. People want to see what is "rational,"
"suited to the times." etc., established everywhere.
The following definition of liberalism, which is sup-