Page:Karl Liebknecht - Militarism (1917).djvu/139

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SOME CARDINAL SINS
107

letariat. That sin of capitalism turns against capitalism itself in two ways. However much the sinner may repent, honestly in helpless contrition, or in the style of the fox in the fable, those weapons can not be taken away from us; for though he appears in sackcloth and ashes the sinner is irreclaimable.

THE COSTS OF MILITARISM OR LA
DOULOUREUSE.

Another Dilemma.

Historical materialism, the doctrine of dialectical evolution, is the doctrine of the inherent necessity of retribution. Every society divided in classes is condemned to commit suicide. Every society divided in classes is a force that ever wills the evil and accomplishes the good and, even if it did not will the evil, must do the evil; it must perish through the original sin of its class character; it must, whether it wants to or not, beget the Œdipus who will slay it one day, but, unlike the fabled Theban, with the full consciousness of com-