The ego and his own Author:Max Stirner Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: I A HUMAN LIFE From the moment when he catches sight of the light of the world ajman sŁejk.stp find out himself and get hpJdŁfAwi//lojojJjconJhiita everythin... more »g else, is tossed about in motley mixture. BuTeverythingThat comes in contact with the child defends itself in turn against his attacks, and asserts its own persistence. Accordingly, because each thing cares for itself- and at the same time comes into constant collision with other things, the combat of self-assertion is unavoidable. Victory or defeat—between the two alternatives the fate of the combat wavers. The victor becomes the lord, the vanquished one the subject: the former exercises supremacy and " rights of supremacy," the latter fulfils in awe and deference the " duties of a subject." But both remain enemies, and always lie in wait: they watch for each other's weaknesses—children for those of their parents and parents for those of their children (e. g. their fear); either the stick conquers the man, or the man conquers the stick. In childhood liberation takes the direction of trying to get to the bottom of things, to get at what is " backof " things; therefore we spy out the weak points of everybody, for which, it is well known, children have a sure instinct; therefore we like to smash things, like to rummage through hidden corners, pry after what is covered up or out of the way, and try what we can do with everything. When we once get at what is back of the things, we know we are safe; when, e. g., we have got at the fact that the rod is too weak against our obduracy, then we no longer fear it, " have outgrown it." Back of the rod, mightier than it, stands our—obduracy, our obdurate courage. By degrees we get at what is back of everything that was mysterious and uncanny to us, the mysteriously-d...« less