"In the end I may indulge in some such luxury. Why not? Just as well as he. … Even if I am less favoured by external circumstances." His voice became more animated and assured. "What matters personally to each of us is not that we should really change the world very much, but that we should create in ourselves a sense of life, as if we were doing so. That only requires talent, and he has plenty."
Diederich was looking about him uneasily. "Here we are alone, more or less,. for the company in front of us has more important matters to discuss, yet I do not think—"
"How you keep on believing that I have something against him. I really do not dislike him any more than I dislike myself. In his place I would have taken Lance-Corporal Lück and our Netzig sentry just as seriously. Would that represent a Force if it were not threatened? Power can be realised only when there is a revolt. What would become of him if he had to admit to himself that the Social Democrats do not aim at him, but, at most, at a more practical distribution of profit?"
"Oh, oh!" cried Diederich.
"Don't you see? That would seem to you an outrage, and to him also. To move along, beside the main current of events, to be caught up in their development instead of guiding it—would that be tolerable? … To have unlimited power in one's inner consciousness, and to be incapable, at the same time, of even arousing hatred except through words and gestures! What, after all, do the fault-finders seize upon? Has anything more tangible happened? Even the Lück affair was only another gesture. When his hand is lowered, everything is as before; only the actor and his audience have had a thrill. And that, my dear Hessling, is the only thing that matters to all of us to-day. The man himself, about whom we are speaking, would be most astonished, believe me, if the war, which he is so constantly announcing, or the revolution, which he has imagined a hundred times, were really to break out!"
