24 Steps to Revolt against Democracy

Jul 23

(1) The questions politicians put to us are over-simplified.

(2) They drive us to an either-or decision, as revealed in elections.

(3) The freedom to say NO is systematically de-platformed.

(4) This is intended to demonstrate the power of the questioner, the State.

(5) It turns saying NO into a venture that only one in a hundred will dare.

(6) The Forest Passage is freedom’s new answer.

(7) Free men are powerful, even in tiny minorities.

(8) Our present epoch is poor in great men, but it brings figures to the light.

(9) The danger leads to the formation of small elites.

(10) The Worker and the Soldier are joined by a third, the Forest Rebel.

(11) Fear can be conquered by them, once they realize their power.

(12) The Forest Passage, as free action in the face of a seemingly invincible enemy,

(13) is independent of politics and its identities.

(14) In the Forest Passage, there is a meeting of man with himself in his indestructible Being.

(15) This meeting banishes the fear of death.

(16) Even the churches can only lend a hand here, since man stands alone in his choices.

(17) The priest may be able to make his situation clear to the Rebel but cannot deliver him from it.

(18) The Forest Rebel crosses the null-meridian under his own power.

(19) In the questions of healthcare, law, and arms, he takes his own sovereign decisions.

(20) Morally, too, he does not act according to any doctrine.

(21) He reserves the right to judge the law for himself.

(22) He decides what to consider property and how he will defend it.

(23) He is aware of the depths from which the Word rises up to fulfill the world.

(24) Here lies the task of the Rebellion, to renew the world in the revolt against democracy.

(After Ernst Jünger, The Forest Passage)

Create your profile