NEUOFFENBARUNGAddiction to rank amongst arrogant humans (8 April 1847)
1. Something that is almost more annoying and harmful than the anger or the devil of anger in the human flesh is the craving for rank, which indeed goes hand in hand with anger; but it is nevertheless the basis of it, for a humble man is not easily provoked to anger, while with a haughty man, as you are wont to say, there is immediately fire in the roof. This rank addiction is the actual main devil with the people, and is already almost completely homogeneous with Satan. However, the children are taken over by this evil spirit only when they have reached some self-knowledge.
2. But one notices such inclinations already early, where the children can still hardly speak. Just put several children together and observe them in their play actions, and you will immediately notice how one will soon want to stand out in front of the others; for even such a child who can hardly speak, likes it when he is paid homage to before the others.
3. This instinct is especially strong in the female gender at home; she will very soon find herself beautiful and begin to preen herself, and whoever wants to ingratiate himself with such a maiden, may only praise her quite often on account of her beauty, and the little maiden will soon begin to smile at this as if somewhat embarrassed, and she will not be in a good mood if there is a second very pretty girl in her company. It would be quite wrong, however, if a second girl were to be found even more beautiful: she would certainly shed secret, if not public, tears.
4. With boys, when they are still children, the beauty of the body does not have so much influence, but strength does; there each one wants to be the strongest, and with his strength totally defeat his comrade, and will also, where possible, without mercy and pardon, not seldom give him an almost murderous proof of this with his hands and feet, in order to stand there as the strongest and therefore the most feared in the boys' society.
5. On such occasions, the presence of the satanic evil demon is already easily noticed in the children.
6. That this demon should be fought immediately, nature already gives the hint, even if nobody would have a higher and deeper knowledge in this sphere, because such lust for rank can obviously degenerate into the greatest vices all too soon.
7. A girl who is addicted to pleasure becomes a coquette at an early age, and immediately also a whore, and in that state she is in a way already at the point where the lord Satan wanted her to be; and the boy soon becomes a ruffian, a brawler, and in general a person to whom nothing is sacred more than only himself.
8. Soon such people become troublemakers, reasoners about God and all circumstances; they soon know everything better than another, understand everything better, and their judgment must be the most correct, simply because they have given it. Whoever does not want to submit to such a judgment, is – in the mildest case – a donkey; in a more demonstrative case, however, he gets flogged.
9. What is to become of such a person afterwards? Who shall instruct him who knows everything better than anyone else? And if his foolishness is shown to him quite clearly by another, he becomes heated, and what he is no longer able to do with his mouth, he leaves to the momentum of his hands, which are usually stronger than the tongue of the opponent; and a few powerful blows to the ribs and a few equally powerful blows to the cheeks with the fist have more effect for the moment than the most beautiful chapter from the letters of Paul, and more than all the wisdom of Socrates; for where a horse lashes out, Socrates and Cicero give way; at the most, Samson and David as fighters could bring about a
powerful counter-effect.
10. This is all due to the lust for rank, according to which everyone wants to be the most excellent, even if he really would be the very last; and if both weapons fail him, he is left with a mouth for swearing and an unquenchable thirst for revenge. Of course, on such an occasion the lust for rank and wrathfulness go hand in hand; their servant is then deceit and dissimulation.
11. This most wicked devil in the human flesh is the duel of all evils among the human race, and is perfectly homogeneous with the lowest and deepest hell; for in him, all evils are united.
12. Would there ever have been a war if this demon had not so corrupted human flesh? No vice can draw so many to it's ruin as this one. A man who has a lot of this demon in him will soon form subjects, at first, of course, under the title: friends; but these friends will have to do out of pure friendship what their commanding master friend wants, and that is because he has drawn them into his rank-obsessed demon. These friends of his will choose friends again and will be drawn into the same demon into which they themselves were drawn. By this, however, the main ringleader already becomes a chief, and because the thing goes well, he begins to command, and his demon will soon draw thousands by his yarn, and they will all dance as he whistles.
13. This is how dynasties come into being; there is one who stands on the top, dictates and gives laws as only his whim offers them, and thousands must obey them, whether with tears of blood, whether willingly or unwillingly, it is all the same; for where a power has once united to form a club, all specific resistance fails, and reason, understanding and wisdom must give way where tyrannical despotism has ascended the throne. If the tyrant likes to have his subjects blind, he may only command that their eyes be gouged out, and his accomplices, inspired by the same demon, do everything the master wishes; But it serves people right that tyrants rule over them, at least if they are not tyrants, they are stubborn despots who, like the tyrant, demand the most punctual obedience, declare the slightest contradiction to be an insult to their majesty, and punish it, if not with death, at least with a temporary heavy imprisonment. But, as I said, it serves the people right that it is so.
14. People themselves have put God on the side and their own demon of arrogance on the throne, and what they once did, they still do; for parents everywhere see to it that their children become something better and higher than themselves. The simple peasant, even if he cannot carry out his wish, at least has it in his heart that his wage should be that of a great lord, and his daughter, if she only had a softer face, should at least become a burgher's wife in a city, or the wife of some country official. A shoemaker is far from letting his children learn his trade; and if he has a daughter who is more beautiful than ugly, it would not be advisable for anyone of his trade to ask her to marry him, because she could easily become a civil servant's wife, if not more, and the shoemaker's son must of course study, and then the more the better. If the daughter of such a fool has really become a bride, and the son even a criminal, then the father must not dare to approach his high-ranking children with his hat on. It offends him very much, and he often weeps bitter tears that his children no longer want to know him. But it serves him right; why was he such a donkey, and took pleasure in raising only two tyrants instead of two supports for his age?
15. Therefore it serves everyone right, and it serves all mankind right, that they are tyrannized from top to bottom, and over and over; for they themselves take the greatest pleasure in forming tyrants out of their own children.
16. Who lets the children study? The parents; why? So that the children may become something; and what should the children become? Quite naturally, if possible, always more than the parents; for
everywhere it is said: "I let my son study, so that he may one day become a clergyman or a civil servant, and if he could make it to a court councilor or even to a minister, or as a clergyman, if possible, to a bishop, then it would be most dear to me. Thus speaks the mind of a father, and likewise the heart of a mother; but that a father would say: "I let my children study only for the purpose of acquiring useful knowledge, in order to be with wise advantage what I myself am, or something lesser, but good and right! This will not easily be heard, still less My word: "He who wants to be the first among you, let him be the last, and your servant of all."
17. This I have commanded, and behold, scarcely a beggar obeys this commandment; but what Satan commands by his demon, small and great, and child and old man run after; but therefore it serves the world right ten times and a hundred times that it is tyrannized with sword and fire, for it has the greatest pleasure in it itself.
18. Stop raising tyrants out of the children and become the last rather than the first, then the tyrants on the thrones will soon stand alone; and because you will stand low, they will also have to descend low from their height, in order not to perish from the same abandonment.
19. But if you build more and more steps from your own children to the throne, it must become higher and higher, and the higher it becomes, the further he can hurl the stones from this lofty position, and the harder they hit you below. I am quite happy to allow the power of the higher ones to grow, so that the fools below may have something to humble them and show them what they should be and are not; and so the rulers are now under My control, and do very right when they press stupid mankind as much as possible, for it deserves nothing better.
20. Doesn't the father make his son a better suit than the one he wears, and the mother goes with her daughters into the fashion vaults, and picks out witnesses for hours, in which her daughters would like to look the better, in order to make more conquests; why conquests? According to My words, conquests are what mankind should strive for! But because of conquests, there the tyrants are justified; yes, they are even angels, because they press down the desire for conquest as much as possible by taxes and other troublesome laws.
21. So the father says to his son: You must acquire such a behavior that you attract all eyes and ears to yourself, and thereby become indispensable to a whole society, or in other words: Seek to become the first in society. Why doesn't the father rather say: Son! withdraw yourself; It is better for you to turn your eyes on society from the lowest point than for society to turn all their eyes on you; or what is better, to be the foundation stone of a building or the gable of it's roof? But when a storm comes and destroys the roof and the house, will it also take the foundation stone from it's place?
22. He who is the lowest down is most safe; but the top of a tower is a toy of all thunderstorms.
23. Therefore go down; let the right humility be the firm standpoint of your being – there the evil rank- demon will leave everyone, and tyranny will have it's eternal end.
24. Or do you think a prince cares that the common rabble recognizes him as a prince? He will really not tie his princely honor to that; but as a prince he only demands the recognition of his sovereignty from the higher circles and from the circles of his equals.
25. Therefore, when mankind descends to the bottom of humility, the prince may look for his equal with lanterns, and his recognition of sovereignty in it; and he will find them as little as polished diamonds in
river gravel.
26. Behold, this is the way to happiness here and beyond; by this, mankind and prince can be improved, but not by rebelliousness, and still less by all kinds of mutinous uprisings against an ordered power.
27. If someone wants to build a house, it must begin at the bottom: it is absolutely not possible to start with the roof. Or how can one first put a flag or a cross on the top of a tower, where the foundation of a whole tower has not even been laid? He who wants to improve others, must first improve himself, and live righteously, and the others will follow him when they see the advantages; and he who wants to humble others, let him humble himself first, then he will take away a step from his neighbor through himself, on which the latter would have climbed higher. But if someone already carries his brother, will his brother come down from the mountain, if his carrier does not want to come down? Therefore, if the bearer first directs his steps downward, the one he carries will also descend; but if the beast of burden goes upward, the one who sits on it and pushes it will surely go higher and higher with it.
28. Therefore, as long as My teaching is not observed completely in everything, he will not become better either here or hereafter, in detail as well as in general. But if someone will follow My teaching completely, he will have it good here and beyond; for a humble soul soon finds it's way in everything, and because it is closest to Me, it also always has the most certain and best help at hand.
29. But, unfortunately, every evil is easier to eradicate than this one, and that is because people themselves take the greatest pleasure in it; and everyone would rather be a highly honored master than a subordinate servant in the true sense of the word. People do indeed greet each other as a devoted servant, but they do not do so as if they wanted to be that, but only as a courtesy, so that their opponent should regard them as the more.
30. Oh dreadfully stupid mankind! When will you come to the insight that without a fixed center, no world is conceivable? The center is the deepest point of every world-body; why does man not want to go into it's depth, so that he would find there the true life ascertainment for eternity, which is indicated so clearly and distinctly in My teaching?
31. But what is the use of My teaching, what should it be, if Jesus, it's founder, now Himself has the honor to be nothing, or at most only a corner of a Socrates or Plato? Or one transforms Jesus into a vain idol, in which nothing is left but the name, and some fragments of His teaching in the form of Egyptian hieroglyphics, about which thinking is still strictly forbidden. In short, one has modulated Jesus as one could use Him, so that He brings in something, and does not do as He commanded, when He said: "If someone asks you for a tunic, give him also the coat.” But he, who should be the last and servant of all, sits among millions at the top! A bad example of humility! But it cannot be otherwise; for even today there are many thousands of people whose most ardent wish would be that their sons should become popes. So there is still a lot of love for the papacy. As long as that is the case, things can not get any better.
32. Next, a few more things about this point.