9. RE. DICTUM 'A MAN TO MAN IS WOLF'

  9. RE. DICTUM 'A MAN TO MAN IS WOLF'

(An Addition  to Chapter 2.  Equality and Elimination of Hierarchy)

When speaking of the problem of equality, of course, it would have been wrong to leave aside the well-known statement that 'a man to man is wolf'. There is a widespread opinion that it is a description of the society and State prior to constructing socialist ones, in which a man to man is allegedly a friend, comrade, and brother.

Well, I have attempted to get an insight into this matter. It is very interesting that I have again come across a wrong translation into Russian. I have previously pointed out to an explicitly poor translation of the key phrase concerning equality in the Capital by K. Marx. Now I have to state a poor translation of the key phrase regarding inequality in the comedy Assinaria (The One with the Asses) by Roman playwright Titus Maccius Plautus (254-184 B.C.) from Latin into Russian. Here it is:

'A wolf is a man to man, all the more so an unknown one'.¹

However, a correct translation must have been approximately as follows:

'If you do not know a man you deal with, then it is more reasonable to see a wolf in him, rather than a man'.

It is obvious that there is a great difference between the two translations, viz., the first one virtually affirms that all men are wolves to each other, even if they know each other, whereas the second one suggests that only unknown men may be suspected of being wolfs. Meanwhile, the second translation does perfectly fit in the context, in which a reasonable merchant's servant refuses to give over money to a swindler who pretends to be the steward the money are intended for.

I have found the Latin original,² 2 translations into German,³ 1 translation into French,⁴ and 2 translations into English.⁵ I have no doubts that only the Russian translation misrepresents the original.

It is also difficult to doubt that the Latin text has been misrepresented not by chance, but rather purposefully, viz., in order to blacken the antique society and to extol that constructed based on the socialist ideas.

But, as a matter of fact, as it turns out, the antique society did not maintain what has been attributed to it by this mistranslation. On the contrary, it apparently used to look at people in a realistic manner and knew that a swindler might also turn up among them.

But the fact that, under the so-called Soviet socialism, many people readily took the bait of various impostors, whereas some of the descendants of the former have been regularly becoming victims of the latter even up to nowadays, may be perhaps accounted for by the fact that they have been deceived by the fabled idea of equality.

Also, when gaining insight into this matter it is difficult not to mention Thomas Hobbes and his famous phrase concerning the natural state of people, viz., Bellum omnium contra omnes.⁶ Here one perhaps ought to state that Hobbes is right to a large extent, although he exaggerates the human equality either. He merely exaggerates the equality in evil deeds, whereas all socialist creeds do so with regard to good deeds. As a matter of fact, of course, not all individuals are equally bellicose. Such individuals may be even in a minority. Nevertheless, they may do much harm. And a State or Commonwealth is absolutely indispensable to keep them in check.

By the way, one does not need to dig in old history books or in descriptions of savages by travellers to provide an illustration of the so-called natural state of people at all. There were rather many bloody feuds in the quite recent history of the USA in the 19th century. A description of such a feud can be found in the remarkable book The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Chapters 17 and 18) by the great American writer Mark Twain. It is obvious that the American State was rather weak at that time, particularly in the remote agricultural areas, and could not properly ensure public order. It is obvious that only naive persons who idealize man and believe in human equality may fancy that people can do without a sufficiently strong State.

1 My translation from: Тит Макций Плавт. Ослы ... Перевод с латинского А. Артюшкова. Комментарии составлены на основе работ М. Покровского. Собрание сочинений в 3-х томах. Т. 1. М.: "Терра", 1997.

2‘Lupus est homo homini, non homo, quom qualis sit non novit’.

3 ‘Wenn man nicht weiß, was für 'nen Mann man vor sich hat, ist's klüger, man sieht ihn als Wolf an, denn als Mann‘. ‚Ein Wolf ist der Mensch dem Menschen, nicht ein Mensch, wenn man sich nicht kennt‘.

4‘L'homme qu'on ne connaît pas est un loup pour vous, et non un homme’.

5‚A man is a wolf rather than a man to another man, when he hasn't yet found out what he's like’. ‘A man to man is wolf, not a man, when the other doesn't know of what character he is’.

6War of all against all.