PORTRAIT OF THE ANTISEMITE
171
principles cannot be valid for both groups. The two groups at least
make different use of these principles.
Everything becomes clear if we give up expecting the Jew to
behave reasonably in conformity with his interests, if we discern in
him, on the contrary, a metaphysical principle which forces him
to do
evil
under all circumstances, though in so doing he destroys himself.
This principle, as we might expect, is magical: on the
on~
hand it
is an essence, a substantial form, and the Jew, whatever he does,
cannot modify it any more than fire can keep itself from burning.
And on the other hand, since the Jew must be hated and since one
does not hate an earthquake or phylloxera, this virtue is also freedom.
But the freedom in question is carefully limited: the Jew is free
to do evil,
not good. He has only as much free will as is necessary
to bear the full responsibility of the crimes he commits, but not enough
to be able to reform. Strange freedom which instead of preceding and
constituting the essence, remains entirely subordinate to it, and which
is but an irrational quality of it and yet remains freedom!
There
is
but one creature to my knowledge, as totally free and
wedded to evil and that is the Spirit of Evil, Satan himself. Thus the
Jew is assimilable to the spirit of evil. His will, contrary to the Kan–
tian will, is one which desires to be purely, gratuitously and universally
evil, it is
the will to evil.
Evil comes to the world through him; all
that is bad in society (crises, wars, famines, upheavals and revolts)
is directly or indirectly imputable to the Jew. The antisemite is afraid
of clis_covering that the world is badly made: for then things would
have to be invented, modified and man would find himself once more
master of his fate, filled with agonizing and infinite responsibility. He
localizes all the evil of the universe in the Jew.
If
nations wage war,
it is not due to the fact that the idea of nationalism in its present form
involves imperialism and conflict of interests. No, the Jew is there
breathing discord- somewhere behind all governments.
If
there is
class struggle,
it
is not caused by an economic organization which
leaves something to be desired: it is because Jewish ringleaders, hook–
nosed agitators have seduced the workers. Thus antisemitism is prima–
rily Manicheanism; it explains the course of the world by the struggle
between the principles of Good and Evil. There is no conceivable
truce between these two principles: one of them must of necessity
triumph and the other be destroyed. Look at Celine: his vision of
the universe is catastrophic; the Jew is everywhere, the earth is lost,
the Aryan must not compromise, he must never make a covenant.
