72
THE FREEDOMSEEKER
Words! — What were words? — Utterances, figments blown into the air
on the breath. They disappeared with it.
Nothing was certain. Not a single thing was clearly established. There was no single guideline for those who wanted to reach the same goal. They spoke of rights and no two among them could agree as to what rights were; where they did at least outwardly agree they daily trampled them underfoot. Language was used to create confusion in the minds of the people. They all used the same words, but with different meanings. Why did they still use this language! They not only used words to suit themselves, each acted according to the interpretation which he gave his words. When others did not agree with their interpretation they used force to compel them to "agree". They stated their will with words; they achieved it by force. Who gave them the right to use force? Ernst Foerster laughed. The right? — He had just realized that right, too, was only a word like all the rest; in fact, opinions were, perhaps, more divided over the meaning of this word than over that of any other. Why, then, did he ask? Right was an entirely unclarified and confused concept, which had never been established anywhere; but force was different, because there could be only one opinion about that. Force was just another word for right, and surely a more honest one. There were no rights in the world; there was only force. Force created the inequalities which were to be found everywhere. How could it be swept away except by opposing force with force? If those who defended injustice as their right sent out police with truncheons and, if this did not succeed, ordered out stronger forces with fixed bayonets and with cannons, why should not those who no longer wished to suffer injustice answer with bombs and dynamite? Because force undoubtedly had the last word. He had once read on an old cannon the words "ultima ratio regis". So it was that all other words turned to force once they became hard reality, until force was all that remained. This great fraud could only be maintained by the use of force, and could only be ended in the same way. Why were they waiting then, and for what? — The pages of history were |