The
equilibrium of life is destroyed by a bureaucracy of the mind which
thinks itself much superior to the simple worker. Certainly no one can
deny that it has its uses; it collects and classifies thoughts in its
pigeon-holes and puts them to various purposes, but the idea rarely
occurs to it to examine its material and renew the content of thought.
It remains the vain guardian of a demonetised treasure. If only
this mistake were a harmless one; but ideas that are not constantly
confronted with reality, which are not frequently dipped into the
stream of experience, grow dry, and take on a toxic character. They
throw a heavy shadow over the new life, bring on the night and produce
fever. What a stupid thraldom to abstract words! Of what use is it to
dethrone kings and by what right do we jeer at those who die for their
masters, if it is only to put tyrannic entities in their places, which
we adorn with their tinsel? It is much better, to have a flesh and
blood monarch, whom you can control--suppress if necessary--than these
abstractions, these invisible despots, that no one knows now, nor ever
has known. We deal only with the head Eunuchs, the priests of the
hidden Crocodile, as Taine calls him, the wire-pulling ministers who
speak in the idol's name.
Pages:
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102