Look at the intimate connection between Darwinism and the political and economic views of the Individualist Radicals of the mid-Victorian era.
Bernhardi assumes that mere material existence is always to be man's destiny. But the perpetuation of existence beyond the immediate present cannot be guided by the instinct of grabbing.
The modern theory is that good and bad as abstract considerations do not exist, but that they are what experience shows to be best for us in the end. The animal knows this subconsciously; man consciously to a certain extent.
Emphatically No; mere brute force is not the law of the universe.
Bernhardi may as well talk of conquering the moon as of conquering the U.S.A.
Man's true development consists above all in the negation of his selfish elements for the good of humanity.
Bernhardi's proposition, "Only the State which strives after an enlarged sphere of influence can create the conditions under which mankind develops into the most splendid perfection," Paul counters by asking: "How does this theory fit in with the case of the Greeks, who, politically so weak, were yet intellectually so great that to-day, after 2,000 years, their influence in Europe is as great as ever? Which would you rather have been, tiny Greece or vast Persia?"
On Bernhardi's remark: "No excuse for revolutionary agitation in Germany now exists."
No excuse? When the people have no power at all, and can at any moment be led to the slaughter by a pack of Junkers—"all for the good of the State"; in other words, to give the military caste more wealth and dignity. In a few years Bernhardi will see whether the people have any cause for revolution or not.
The Germany of philosophy, poetry and song will rescue the German people from the abyss into which the War Lords have plunged them.