. That was an act
of force and so a political act. And this slavery constitutes the
point of departure and fundamental fact of history up to the present
time and inoculates the heirs of sin with injustice so certainly that
only lately it has become milder and "transformed into the more
indirect forms of economic dependency." Since the whole of the
remaining actual "force-possession" rests upon this original
enslavement, it is clear that all economic phenomena can be explained
from original political causes, that is from force. And whoever is not
satisfied with this is a secret reactionary.

Let us first remark that one has to be as much in love with himself as
Herr Duehring is to consider this idea as "original" since it is not
so by any means. The idea that the political doings of monarch and
states are decisive events in history is as old as the writing of
history itself and is the reason why we are so little aware of the
real and quietly developing progress of the peoples which goes on
behind these noisy and spectacular activities. This idea has dominated
the whole of history in the past and got its first shock at the hands
of the French bourgeois historians of the Restoration period.

To proceed, let us grant for the present that Herr Duehring is correct
when he says that all history up to now has been the slavery of man by
men, and we are still a long way from the root of the matter. Let us
ask now how it was that Robinson came to enslave Friday. Was it merely
for the pleasure of doing so? Surely not. On the contrary we are
informed that Friday "was subjugated as a slave or mere tool for
economic service and was kept in subjection merely as a tool."
Robinson only enslaved Friday that he might work for the benefit of
Robinson. And how could Robinson derive benefit from the labor of
Friday? Only by virtue of the fact that Friday produced more means of
livelihood by his labor than Robinson had to give him to keep him able
to work. Robinson has therefore, contrary to Herr Duehring's pretty
prescription, made, by the enslavement of Friday, a political
organization, not just because he wanted to, but simply as a means of
providing himself with food, and he ought to see how little he has in
common with his lord and master Herr Duehring.

The childish example therefore which Herr Duehring has discovered in
order to show that force is the "historical fundamental" proves that
force is only a means to further an economic i