THE EROS THEORY
31
fancy, which imposes an unnecessary check on i nstinctual nature and should therefore be eradicated. The principle of ecrasez l'infd.me would end in a theory of absolute libertinism. Naturally, that would be quite fantastic a nd nonsew;~~l T. should ne ver be f orgotten-and of this the Freudian se he be reminded-that morality was not brought down on t ~ stone from Sinai and imposed on the people, but is a fun the human soul, as old as humanity itse1f(Morality is not imposed from outside; we have it in ourselves from the start-not the law, but our moral nature w ithout w hich t he c ollective l ife of hum an s ociety w ould be impossible. That is why morality is found at all levels of society. It is the instinctive regulator of action which also governs the collective life of t he he rd. But m oral l aws a re v alid onl y w ithin a c ompact hu man group. Beyond that, they cease. There the old truth runs: Homo homini lupus. With the growth of civilization we have succeeded in subjecting ever l arger hum an gr oups t o t he r ule of t he s ame m orality, w ithout, however, h aving ye t br ought t he moral code t o pr evail be yond t he social frontiers, that is, in the free space between mutually independent societies. T here, a s of ol d, r eign l awlessness an d l icence an d mad immorality-thoug, of course it is only the enemy who dares to say it out loud. The Freudian school is so convinced of the fundamental, indeed exclusive, importance of sexuality in neurosis that it has drawn the logical conclusion and valiantly attacked the sexual morality of our day. This was be yond a doubt u seful a nd ne cessary, f or in t his f ield there prevailed a nd s till p revail id eas w hich i n vi ew of t he e xtremely complicated state of affairs are too undifferentiated. Just as in the early Middle Ages finance was held in contempt because there was as yet no differentiated f inancial m orality t o s uit each cas e, b ut o nly a m ass morality, so today there is only a mass sexual morality. A girl who has an illegitimate baby is condemned and nobody asks whether she is a decent hum an be ing or not. Any f orm of love not sanctioned by l aw is considered immoral, whether between worth-while people or bounders. We are still so hypnotized by what happens that we forget how and to whom it happens, just as for the Middle Ages finance was nothing but glittering gold, fiercely coveted and therefore the devil.
27