THOREAU, PRINCIPALMENTE: (12-12-2008+9-01-2022: SANGRE Y HUMANIDAD (V), EL GRAN INQUISIDOR)
If perchance Thou wouldst hear it
from my own lips, then listen: We are not with Thee, but with him, and that is
our secret! For centuries have we abandoned Thee to follow him, yes—eight centuries.
Eight hundred years now since we accepted from him the gift rejected by Thee
with indignation; that last gift which he offered Thee from the high mountain
when, showing all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them, he saith
unto Thee: "All these things will I give Thee, if Thou will fall down and
worship me!" We took Rome from him and the glaive of Caesar, and declared
ourselves alone the kings of this earth, its sole kings, though our work is not
yet fully accomplished. But who is to blame for it? Our work is but in its
incipient stage, but it is nevertheless started. We may have long to wait until
its culmination, and mankind have to suffer much, but we shall reach the goal
some day, and become sole Caesars, and then will be the time to think of
universal happiness for men.
"'Thou couldst accept the
glaive of Caesar Thyself; why didst Thou reject the offer? By accepting
from the powerful spirit his third offer Thou would have realized every
aspiration man seeketh for himself on earth; man would have found a constant
object for worship; one to deliver his conscience up to, (…)
In accepting the kingdom of
the world and Caesar's purple, one would found a universal kingdom and secure
to mankind eternal peace.
(…)
And all will be happy, all except
the one or two hundred thousands of their rulers. For it is but we, we the
keepers of the great Mystery who will be miserable.
(…)
Peaceable will be their end, and
peacefully will they die, in Thy name, to find behind the portals of the
grave—but death. But we will keep the secret inviolate, and deceive them for
their own good with the mirage of life eternal in Thy kingdom. For, were there
really anything like life beyond the grave, surely it would never fall to the
lot of such as they!
(…)
We are also threatened with the
great disgrace which awaits the whore, "Babylon the great, the mother of
harlots"—who sits upon the Beast, holding in her hands the Mystery, the
word written upon her forehead; and we are told that the weak ones, the
lambs shall rebel against her and shall make her desolate and naked. But then
will I arise, and point out to Thee the thousands of millions of happy
infants free from any sin. And we who have taken their sins upon us, for their
own good, shall stand before Thee and say: "Judge us if Thou canst and
darest!"
Know then that I fear Thee not.
Know that I too have lived in the dreary wilderness, where I fed upon locusts
and roots, that I too have blessed freedom with which thou hast blessed men,
and that I too have once prepared to join the ranks of Thy elect, the proud and
the mighty. But I awoke from my delusion and refused since then to serve
insanity. I returned to join the legion of those who corrected Thy mistakes. I
left the proud and returned to the really humble, and for their own happiness.
What I now tell thee will come to pass, and our kingdom shall be built, I
tell Thee not later than to-morrow Thou shalt see that obedient flock which at
one simple motion of my hand will rush to add burning coals to Thy stake, on
which I will burn Thee for having dared to come and trouble us in our work.
For, if there ever was one who deserved more than any of the others our
inquisitorial fires—it is Thee! To-morrow I will burn Thee. Dixi'."
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Translator: H. P. Blavatsky
(Louis
Althusser cites "The Grand Inquisitor" as the original
'anticipatory' anti-socialist/anti-totalitarianism ideological work, in the
chapter "On Ideology" in On the Reproduction of Capitalism. London: Verso. p. 177.)
(El
Gran Inquisidor ha extremado su estrategia. El dominio no puede ya
basarse en la recompensa en otra vida sino en la negación de cualquier
vida en ésta. No cabe ni siquiera la memoria de la eternidad de los
otros-ni de la propia- en esta vida. Y cada cosa debe excluir el
entusiasmo y la voluntad que lucha y encuentra un mérito nuevo. Y toda
clase de cosas bellas. Solo cabe el poder y la derrota que excluye
cualquier horizonte de vida. Ello exige que más acá de la tumba solo
encontremos, también, la muerte. No hay ningún nacimiento más acá ni más
allá de la muerte.)
Quizás
lo que tú quieres es escucharlo precisamente de mis labios, pues
escucha nosotros no estamos contigo sino con él, ¡éste es nuestro
secreto! Hace mucho tiempo que estamos con él y no contigo, hace ya ocho
siglos. Hace exactamente ocho siglos que aceptamos de él lo que tú
rechazaste indignado, el último don que te ofreció al mostrarte todos
los reinos de la tierra: aceptamos de él Roma y la espada del César y
nos declaramos reyes de la tierra, reyes únicos, aunque no hemos tenido
tiempo de llevar hasta su plena realización nuestra empresa ... pero
alcanzaremos nuestro objetivo y seremos césares: entonces pensaremos en
la felicidad de los hombres en toda la tierra. No obstante, ya entonces
tú habrías podido tomar la espada del César. ¿Por qué rechazaste este
último don? Si hubieras aceptado este último consejo del espíritu
poderoso, habrías proporcionado al hombre cuanto busca en la tierra, es
decir, un ser ante el que inclinarse, un ser al que confiar la
conciencia ... De haber aceptado el mundo y el purpúreo manto del César,
habrías fundado el reino universal y habrías asegurado la paz en la
tierra... Has de saber que no te temo ... que también yo he bendecido la
libertad con la que tú bendijiste a las gentes...Pero abrí los ojos y
no quise ponerme al servicio de la insensatez...Lo que te digo se
cumplirá, se establecerá nuestro reino...Pues si ha habido alguien que ha merecido nuestra hoguera más que nadie, eres tú. Mañana te quemaré. Dixi."
(Dostoyevski, El Gran Inquisidor, traducción de Augusto Vidal)
