EL GRAN INQUISIDOR (THE GRAND INQUISITOR): DOSTOEVSKI CONSPIRANOICO ("JUDGE US IF THOU CANST AND DAREST!")

 

 

 

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)