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THE EGO AND HIS OWN

the laymen had to suffer subjection. However, as
the saying goes, " one learns wisdom by suffering";
and so the laymen at last learned wisdom and no
longer believed in the mediaeval " truth."--A like re-
lation exists between the commonalty and the laboring
class. Commoner and laborer believe in the " truth "
of money ; they who do not possess it believe in it no
less than those who possess it: the laymen, therefore,
as well as the priests.

" Money governs the world " is the keynote of the

civic epoch. A destitute aristocrat and a destitute
laborer, as " starvelings," amount to nothing so far as
political consideration is concerned; birth and labor
do not do it, but money brings consideration.* The
possessors rule, but the State trains up from the desti-
tute its " servants," to whom, in proportion as they
are to rule (govern) in its name, it gives money
(a salary).

I receive everything from the State. Have I any-

thing without the State's assent ? What I have with-
out this it takes from me as soon as it discovers the
lack of a " legal title." Do I not, therefore, have
everything through its grace, its assent ?

On this alone, on the legal title, the commonalty

rests. The commoner is what he is through the pro-
tection of the State, through the State's grace. He
would necessarily be afraid of losing everything if the
State's power were broken.

But how is it with him who has nothing to lose,

how with the proletarian? As he has nothing to lose,

*[das Geld gibt Geltung ]

MEN OF THE OLD TIME AND THE NEW 151

he does not need the protection of the State for his
"nothing." He may gain, on the contrary, if that
protection of the State is withdrawn from the protege.

Therefore the non-possessor will regard the State as

a power protecting the possessor, which privileges the
latter, but does nothing for him, the non-possessor,
but to--suck his blood. The State is a--commoners'
State, is the estate of the commonalty. It protects
man not according to his labor, but according to his
tractableness ("loyalty"),--to wit, according to
whether the rights entrusted to him by the State are
enjoyed and managed in accordance with the will,
i. e. laws, of the State.

Under the régime of the commonalty the laborers

always fall into the hands of the possessors,--i. e. of
those who have at their disposal some bit of the State
domains (and everything possessible is State domain,
belongs to the State, and is only a fief of the indi-
vidual), especially money and land; of the capitalists,
therefore. The laborer cannot realize on his labor to
the extent of the value that it has for the consumer.
" Labor is badly paid! " The capitalist has the
greatest profit from it.--Well paid, and more than
well paid, are only the labors of those who heighten
the splendor and dominion of the State, the labors of
high State servants. The State pays well that its
" good citizens," the possessors, may be able to pay
badly without danger ; it secures to itself by good
payment its servants, out of whom it forms a protect-
ing power, a " police " (to the police belong soldiers,
officials of all kinds, e. g. those of justice, education,
etc.,--in short, the whole " machinery of the State ")