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second epilogue-第7章

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relation between those who command and those who execute; we find that

by the very nature of the case those who command take the smallest

part in the action itself and that their activity is exclusively

directed to commanding。

EP2|CH7

  CHAPTER VII



  When an event is taking place people express their opinions and

wishes about it; and as the event results from the collective activity

of many people; some one of the opinions or wishes expressed is sure

to be fulfilled if but approximately。 When one of the opinions

expressed is fulfilled; that opinion gets connected with the event

as a command preceding it。

  Men are hauling a log。 Each of them expresses his opinion as to

how and where to haul it。 They haul the log away; and it happens

that this is done as one of them said。 He ordered it。 There we have

command and power in their primary form。 The man who worked most

with his hands could not think so much about what he was doing; or

reflect on or command what would result from the common activity;

while the man who commanded more would evidently work less with his

hands on account of his greater verbal activity。

  When some larger concourse of men direct their activity to a

common aim there is a yet sharper division of those who; because their

activity is given to directing and commanding; take less less part

in the direct work。

  When a man works alone he always has a certain set of reflections

which as it seems to him directed his past activity; justify his

present activity; and guide him in planning his future actions。 Just

the same is done by a concourse of people; allowing those who do not

take a direct part in the activity to devise considerations;

justifications; and surmises concerning their collective activity。

  For reasons known or unknown to us the French began to drown and

kill one another。 And corresponding to the event its justification

appears in people's belief that this was necessary for the welfare

of France; for liberty; and for equality。 People ceased to kill one

another; and this event was accompanied by its justification in the

necessity for a centralization of power; resistance to Europe; and

so on。 Men went from the west to the east killing their fellow men;

and the event was accompanied by phrases about the glory of France;

the baseness of England; and so on。 History shows us that these

justifications of the events have no common sense and are all

contradictory; as in the case of killing a man as the result of

recognizing his rights; and the killing of millions in Russia for

the humiliation of England。 But these justifications have a very

necessary significance in their own day。

  These justifications release those who produce the events from moral

responsibility。 These temporary aims are like the broom fixed in front

of a locomotive to clear the snow from the rails in front: they

clear men's moral responsibilities from their path。

  Without such justification there would be no reply to the simplest

question that presents itself when examining each historical event。

How is it that millions of men commit collective crimes… make war;

commit murder; and so on?

  With the present complex forms of political and social life in

Europe can any event that is not prescribed; decreed; or ordered by

monarchs; ministers; parliaments; or newspapers be imagined? Is

there any collective action which cannot find its justification in

political unity; in patriotism; in the balance of power; or in

civilization? So that every event that occurs inevitably coincides

with some expressed wish and; receiving a justification; presents

itself as the result of the will of one man or of several men。

  In whatever direction a ship moves; the flow of the waves it cuts

will always be noticeable ahead of it。 To those on board the ship

the movement of those waves will be the only perceptible motion。

  Only by watching closely moment by moment the movement of that

flow and comparing it with the movement of the ship do we convince

ourselves that every bit of it is occasioned by the forward movement

of the ship; and that we were led into error by the fact that we

ourselves were imperceptibly moving。

  We see the same if we watch moment by moment the movement of

historical characters (that is; re…establish the inevitable

condition of all that occurs… the continuity of movement in time)

and do not lose sight of the essential connection of historical

persons with the masses。

  When the ship moves in one direction there is one and the same

wave ahead of it; when it turns frequently the wave ahead of it also

turns frequently。 But wherever it may turn there always will be the

wave anticipating its movement。

  Whatever happens it always appears that just that event was foreseen

and decreed。 Wherever the ship may go; the rush of water which neither

directs nor increases its movement foams ahead of it; and at a

distance seems to us not merely to move of itself but to govern the

ship's movement also。



  Examining only those expressions of the will of historical persons

which; as commands; were related to events; historians have assumed

that the events depended on those commands。 But examining the events

themselves and the connection in which the historical persons stood to

the people; we have found that they and their orders were dependent on

events。 The incontestable proof of this deduction is that; however

many commands were issued; the event does not take place unless

there are other causes for it; but as soon as an event occurs… be it

what it may… then out of all the continually expressed wishes of

different people some will always be found which by their meaning

and their time of utterance are related as commands to the events。

  Arriving at this conclusion we can reply directly and positively

to these two essential questions of history:

  (1) What is power?

  (2) What force produces the movement of the nations?

  (1) Power is the relation of a given person to other individuals; in

which the more this person expresses opinions; predictions; and

justifications of the collective action that is performed; the less is

his participation in that action。

  (2) The movement of nations is caused not by power; nor by

intellectual activity; nor even by a combination of the two as

historians have supposed; but by the activity of all the people who

participate in the events; and who always combine in such a way that

those taking the largest direct share in the event take on

themselves the least responsibility and vice versa。

  Morally the wielder of power appears to cause the event;

physically it is those who submit to the power。 But as the moral

activity is inconceivable without the physical; the cause of the event

is neither in the one nor in the other but in the union of the two。

  Or in other words; the conception of a cause is inapplicable to

the phenomena we are examining。

  In the last analysis we reach the circle of infinity… that final

limit to which in every domain of thought man's reason arrives if it

is not playing with the subject。 Electricity produces heat; heat

produces electricity。 Atoms attract each other and atoms repel one

another。

  Speaking of the interaction of heat and electricity and of atoms; we

cannot say why this occurs; and we say that it is so because it is

inconceivable otherwise; because it must be so and that it is a law。

The same applies to historical events。 Why war and revolution occur we

do not know。 We only know that to produce the one or the other action;

people combine in a certain formation in which they all take part; and

we say that this is so because it is unthinkable otherwise; or in

other words that it is a law。

EP2|CH8

  CHAPTER VIII



  If history dealt only with external phenomena; the establishment

of this simple and obvious law would suffice and we should have

finished our argument。 But the law of history relates to man。 A

particle of matter cannot tell us that it does not feel the law of

attraction or repulsion and that that law is untrue; but man; who is

the subject of history; says plainly: I am free and am therefore not

subject to the law。

  The presence of the problem of man's free will; though

unexpressed; is felt at every step of history。

  All seriously thinking historians have involuntarily encountered

this question。 All the contradictions and obscurities of history and

the false path historical science has followed are due solely to the

lack of a solution of that question。

  If the will of every man were free; that is; if each man could act

as he pleased; all history would be a series of disconnected

incidents。

  If in a thousand years even one man in a million could act freely;

that is; as he chose; it is evident that one single free act of that

man's in violation of the laws governing human action would destroy

the possibility of the existence of any laws for the whole of

humanity。

  If there be a single law governing the actions of men; free will

cannot exist; for then man's will is subject to that law。

  In
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