Freeland

T >> Theodor Hertzka >> Freeland

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But another change is now about to be effected. The gods can no longer rule
by terror over a race that has robbed the clouds of their lightning and the
underworld of its fire; and, now that servitude has ceased to be the basis
of the terrestrial order, it must also disappear from the celestial. The
fear of God is as inconceivable as pessimism of any kind whatever as a
characteristic of the coming generations, who, released from the suffering
of the world, will pass their existence in the enjoyment of a lifelong
happiness. For the great thinkers who, looking beyond their own times, give
expression to truths the full meaning of which is understood only by
subsequent generations, have never failed to see that this suffering, this
'original sin,' is based upon nothing else than the injustice of
exploitation. The evils which mankind brought upon itself--want and
vice--were what converted earth into hell; what nature imposed upon
us--sickness and death--can no more embitter life to us than it can any
other kind of living creatures. Sickness cannot, because it is only
transitory and exceptional, especially since misery and vice no longer
minister to it; and death cannot, because, in reality, it is not death, but
merely the fear of it, which is an evil.

But it will be said that this fear of death, foolish as it may be in
itself, is a real evil which is infinitely more painful to man, who
reflects upon the future, than to the animal that lives merely in the
present and knows of and fears death only when it is imminent. This was, in
fact, the case, but it will not continue to be so when man, by his return
to the innocence of nature, has won back his right to the painlessness of
death. The fear of death is only one of the many specific instincts by
which nature secures the perpetuation of species. If the beasts did not
fear destruction, they would necessarily all perish, for their means of
warding off the powerful dangers with which they are threatened are but
weak. It is different with man, who has not merely become king of the
living world, but has at last made himself master of the elements. In order
to preserve the human species from perishing, nature needed to give to man
the blind fear of death only so long as he had to defend himself against
himself and his fellow-men. So long as he was the victim of the torture of
subjection, man had also to think of death with emotions of invincible
shuddering if he would not prefer destruction to suffering. Just because it
was so painful, life had to be fenced round with the blind dread of death
even in the case of that highest species, man, which did not need
protection from external dangers. But now is this last and worst danger
overcome; the dread of death has become superfluous even as a protection
against suicide; it has no longer any use as a specific instinct of man,
and it will disappear like every specific character which has become
useless. This evil, also, will vanish with injustice from mankind; life
spreads out full of serene joyousness before our successors, who, free from
the crippling influence of pessimism, will spend their days in unending
progress towards perfection.

But we, my friends, now hasten to open the doors to this future!

Here closed the sixth and last day of the Universal Congress of Eden Vale.

CONCLUSION

The history of 'Freeland' is ended. I could go on with the thread of the
narrative, and depict the work of human emancipation as it appears to my
mental eye, but of what use would it be? Those who have not been convinced,
by what I have already written, that we are standing on the threshold of a
new and happier age, and that it depends solely upon our discernment and
resolve whether we pass over it, would not be convinced by a dozen volumes.

For this book is not the idle creation of an uncontrolled imagination, but
the outcome of earnest, sober reflection, and of profound scientific
investigation. All that I have described as really happening _might_ happen
if men were found who, convinced as I am of the untenability of existing
conditions, determined to act instead of merely complaining.
Thoughtlessness and inaction are, in truth, at present the only props of
the existing economic and social order. What was formerly necessary, and
therefore inevitable, has become injurious and superfluous; there is no
longer anything to compel us to endure the misery of an obsolete system;
there is nothing but our own folly to prevent us from enjoying that
happiness and abundance which the existing means of civilisation are
capable of providing for us.

It will perhaps be objected, 'Thus have numberless reformers spoken and
written, since the days of Sir Thomas More; and what has been proposed to
mankind as a panacea for all suffering has always proved to be Utopian.'
And I am willing to admit that the dread of being classed with the legion
of authors of Utopian romances at first filled my mind with not a few
qualms as to the form which I had chosen for my book. But, upon mature
deliberation, I decided to offer, not a number of dry abstractions, but as
vivid a picture as possible, which should clearly represent in concrete
conceptions what abstract ideas would have shown in merely shadowy
outlines. The reader who does not for himself discover the difference
between this book and the works of imagination above referred to, is lost
to me; to him I should remain the 'unpractical enthusiast' even if I were
to elaborate ever so dry a systematic treatise, for it is enough for him to
know that I believe in a change of the existing system to condemn me as an
enthusiast. It matters not, to this kind of readers, in what form I state
my proofs; for such readers, like fanatics in the domain of religion, are
simply disqualified to estimate aright the evidence which is pointed
against what exists.

The impartial reader, on the other hand, will not be prevented by the
narrative form of this book from soberly endeavouring to discover whether
my propositions are essentially true or false. If he should find that I
have started from false premises, that the system of freedom and justice
which I have propounded is inconsistent in any way with the natural and
universally recognised springs of human action--nay, if, after reading my
book, he should not have attained to the firm conviction that the
realisation of this new order--apart, of course, from unimportant
details--is absolutely inevitable, then I must be content to be placed in
the same category as More, Fourier, Cabet, and the rest who have mistaken
their desires for sober reality.

I wish once more expressly to state that the intrinsic practicability of my
book extends beyond the economic and ethical principles and motives
underlying it, to the actual stage upon which its scenes are placed. The
highlands in Equatorial Africa exactly correspond to the picture drawn in
the book. In order that 'Freeland' may be realised as I have drawn it,
nothing more is required, therefore, than a sufficient number of vigorous
men. Shall I be privileged to live until these men are found?