"The anti‐Semite understands nothing about modern society. He would be incapable of conceiving of a constructive plan; his action cannot reach the level of the methodical; it remains on the ground of passion. To a long‐term enterprise he prefers an explosion of rage analogous to the running amuck of the Malays. His intellectual activity is confined to interpretation; he seeks in historical events the signs of the presence of an evil power. Out of this spring those childish and elaborate fabrications which give him his resemblance to the extreme paranoiacs. In addition, anti‐Semitism channels evolutionary drives toward the destruction of certain men, not of institutions. An anti‐Semitic mob will consider it has done enough when it has massacred some Jews and burned a few synagogues. It represents, therefore, a safety valve for the owning classes, who encourage it and thus substitute for a dangerous hate against their regime a beneficent hate against particular people. Above all this naive dualism is eminently reassuring to he anti‐Semite himself. If all he has to do is to remove Evil, that means that the Good is already given. He has no need to seek it in anguish, to invent it, to scrutinize it patiently when he has found it, to prove it in action, to verify it by its consequences, or, finally, to shoulder the responsibilities of the moral choice he has made. It is not by chance that the great outbursts of anti‐Semitic rage conceal a basic optimism. The anti‐Semite has cast his lot for Evil so as not to have to cast his lot for Good. The more one is absorbed in fighting Evil, the less one is tempted to place the Good in question. One does not need to talk about it, yet it is always understood in the discourse of the anti‐Semite and it remains understood in his thought. When he has fulfilled his mission as holy destroyer, the Lost Paradise will reconstitute itself. For the moment so many tasks confront the anti‐Semite that he does not have time to think about it. He is in the breach, fighting, and each of his outbursts of rage is a pretext to avoid the anguished search for the Good."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
p. 31-32
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jean-Paul_Sartre
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Jean-Paul Sartre
1905 – 1980
französischer Philosoph und Schriftsteller
265 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Jean-Paul Sartre →
Related Quotes
"The For-itself, in fact, is nothing but the pure nihilation of the In-itself; it is like a hole of being at the heart…"
"Man is always separated from what he is by all the breadth of the being which he is not. He makes himself known to hi…"
"Yes, I am so free. And what a superb absence is my soul."
"Your church is a whore: she sells her favors to the rich."
"It is too early to love. We will buy the right to do so by shedding blood."
"Adieu les monstres! Adieu les saints! Adieu l'orgueil! Il n'y a que des hommes."
"If a victory is told in detail, one can no longer distinguish it from a defeat."
"Night is falling: at dusk, you must have good eyesight to be able to tell the Good Lord from the Devil."
"You must be afraid, my son. That is how one becomes an honest citizen."
"Generally speaking there is no irreducible taste or inclination. They all represent a certain appropriative choice of…"