< prev
next>
xvi
INTRODUCTION
predatory barons to do justice. They will find it convenient for
their own welfare to make terms with men who have learned of
Stirner what a man can be who worships nothing, bears alle-
giance to nothing. To Nietzsche's rhodomontade of eagles in
baronial form, born to prey on industrial lambs, we rather taunt-
ingly oppose the ironical question : Where are your claws ?
What if the " eagles " are found to be plain barnyard fowls on
which more silly fowls have fastened steel spurs to hack the vic-
tims, who, however, have the power to disarm the sham
" eagles " between two suns ?
Stirner shows that men make their tyrants as they make their
gods, and his purpose is to unmake tyrants.
Nietzsche dearly loves a tyrant.
In style Stirner's work offers the greatest possible contrast to
the puerile, padded phraseology of Nietzsche's " Zarathustra "
and its false imagery. Who ever imagined such an unnatural
conjuncture as an eagle " toting " a serpent in friendship ? which
performance is told of in bare words, but nothing comes of it.
In Stirner we are treated to an enlivening and earnest discussion
addressed to serious minds, and every reader feels that the word
is to him, for his instruction and benefit, so far as he has mental
independence and courage to take it and use it. The startling
intrepidity of this book is infused with a whole-hearted love for
all mankind, as evidenced by the fact that the author shows not
one iota of prejudice or any idea of division of men into ranks.
He would lay aside government, but would establish any regula-
tion deemed convenient, and for this only our convenience is
consulted. Thus there will be general liberty only when the dis-
position toward tyranny is met by intelligent opposition that will
no longer submit to such a rule. Beyond this the manly sym-
pathy and philosophical bent of Stirner are such that rulership
appears by contrast a vanity, an infatuation of perverted pride.
We know not whether we more admire our author or more love
him.
Stirner's attitude toward woman is not special. She is an in-
INTRODUCTION
xvii
dividual if she can be, not handicapped by anything he says,
feels, thinks, or plans. This was more fully exemplified in his
life than even in this book; but there is not a line in the book to
put or keep woman in an inferior position to man, neither is
there anything of caste or aristocracy in the book.
Likewise there is nothing of obscurantism or affected mystic-
ism about it. Everything in it is made as plain as the author
could make it. He who does not so is not Stirner's disciple nor
successor nor co-worker.
Some one may ask : How does plumb-line Anarchism train
with the unbridled egoism proclaimed by Stirner ? The plumb-
line is not a fetish, but an intellectual conviction, and egoism is
a universal fact of animal life. Nothing could seem clearer to
my mind than that the reality of egoism must first come into the
consciousness of men, before we can have the unbiased Einzige
in place of the prejudiced biped who lends himself to the sup-
port of tyrannies a million times stronger over me than the nat-
ural self-interest of any individual. When plumb-line doctrine
is misconceived as duty between unequal-minded men,--as a reli-
gion of humanity,-- it is indeed the confusion of trying to read
without knowing the alphabet and of putting philanthropy in
place of contract. But, if the plumb-line be scientific, it is or
can be my possession, my property, and I choose it for its use--
when circumstances admit of its use. I do not feel bound to use
it because it is scientific, in building my house; but, as my will,
to be intelligent, is not to be merely wilful, the adoption of the
plumb-line follows the discarding of incantations. There is no
plumb-line without the unvarying lead at the end of the line;
not a fluttering bird or a clawing cat.
On the practical side of the question of egoism versus self-sur-
render and for a trial of egoism in politics, this may be said: the
belief that men not moved by a sense of duty will be unkind or
unjust to others is but an indirect confession that those who hold
that belief are greatly interested in having others live for them
rather than for themselves. But I do not ask or expect so much.