ettered Ego of Stirner is the
never-ceasing criminal in the State; for only he who denies his
"self," and who practises self-denial is acceptable to the State. And
thus with the disappearance of right comes also the disappearance of
crime.

"The dispute about the right of property is violently waged. The
Communists maintain that the earth belongs properly to him who
cultivates it; and the products of the same to those who produce them.
I maintain it belongs to him who knows how to take it, or who does not
let it be taken from him or let himself be deprived of it; if he
appropriates it, not merely the earth but also the right to it belongs
to him. This is the egotistical right, that is, it is right for me,
and therefore it is right." How far Stirner is separated from Proudhon
is shown most clearly in the question of property. Proudhon denied
property because it was incompatible with justice. Stirner denies
justice, and maintains property upon the grounds of the right of
occupation. Proudhon declared that property was theft, but Stirner
entirely reverses the phrase, and answers to the question, What is my
property?--"Nothing but what is in my power." To what property am I
entitled?--"To that which I entitle myself." "I give myself the right
to property by taking property or by giving myself the power of the
proprietor, a full power or title."

The theory of occupation or seizure here appears to us in all its
brutality. Nevertheless, even here Stirner is not frightened at the
most extreme consequences of this theory, nor at the thought that one
would have to defend one's property daily and hourly with a weapon in
one's hand; and he is therefore inclined to make some concession to a
voluntary form of organisation. "If men reach the point of losing
respect for property, each will have property; just as all slaves
become freemen as soon as they regard their master no longer as
master. Union will then multiply the means of the individual, and
secure for him the property he has acquired by fighting. In the
opinion of the Communists the community should be the only proprietor.
The converse of this is, I am the proprietor, and merely come to some
agreement with others about my property. If the community does not do
right by me, I revolt against it, and defend my property. I am an
owner of property, but property is not sacred." The regulation of
society by itself is accepted by Stirner just as little as in the
question of prope