第14章 競争, n.14 - 至福千年主義者とは?
確かに,(世の中には)もっと穏やかなタイプの至福千年主義者も存在している。(即ち)人間において最良のものは,その人の心の内部から来るものでなければならず,また,いかなる外的権威によっても強いることはできないものである,と考える人々がいる。この見解は,フレンド派(キリスト教友愛会)によって例示されている。(また)外的影響力は博愛及び賢明な説得の形である場合には重要かつ有益であるかも知れないが(可能性があるが)、牢獄(刑務所)あるいは処刑(execution 死刑執行)という形をとる場合にはそうではない,と考える人たちもいる。そのような人々は,熱心な革新者であっても,宣伝の自由を信ずるかも知れない。 |
Chapter 14: Competition, n.14The ardent innovator is, as a rule, a millenarian : he holds that the millennium will have arrived when all men embrace his creed. Though in the present he is revolutionary, in the future he is a conservative : a perfect State is to be reached, and when reached is only to be preserved unchanged. Holding these views, he naturally shrinks from no degree of violence either in seeking the perfect State or in preventing its overthrow: in opposition he is a terrorist ; in government, a persecutor. His belief in violence naturally provokes the same belief in his opponents : while they are in power they will persecute him, and when they are in opposition they will plot his assassination. His millennium is not therefore altogether pleasant for everybody ; there will be spies, arrests by administrative orders, and concentration camps. But, like Tertullian, he sees no harm in that.There are, it is true, millenarians of a gentler type. There are those who consider that what is best in a man must come from within, and cannot be imposed by any external authority; this view is exemplified by the Society of Friends. There are those who hold that external influences may be important and beneficial when they take the form of benevolence and wise persuasion, but not when they take the form of prison or execution. Such men may believe in freedom of propaganda in spite of being ardent innovators. |