This is in ref. to Anton Chekov....
Sister: "In Leskov's Story Belonging to the Cathedral there is a queer gardener who sows for the benefit of all - the customers, for beggars, and any who care to steal. Did he behave sensibly?"
Brother: "Theft is immoral. To sow for thieves is to recognize the right of theives to existence. What would you think if I were to establish a newspaper and, dividing it into sections, provide for blackmailing as well as for liberal ideas? Following the example of that gardener, I ought, logically, to provide a section for blackmailers, the intellectual scoundrels? Yes"
Sister:"I don't know, I know nothing about it. You are probably right, but it seems to me, I feel somehow, that there's something false in our resistance to evil, as though there was something concealed or unsaid. God knows, perhaps our methods of resisting evil belong to the category of prejudices which have become so deeply rooted in us, that we are incapable of parting with them, and therefore cannot form a correct judgement of them"
Brother: "How do you mean?"
Sister: "I don't know how to explain to you. Perhaps man is mistaken in thinking that he is obliged to resist evil and has a right to do so, just as he is mistaken in thinking, for instance, that the heart looks like an ace of hearts. It is very possible in resisting evil, we ought not to use force, but to use what is the very opposite of force - if you, for instance, don't want this picture stolen from you, you ought to give it away rather than lock it up."
Sister: "In Leskov's Story Belonging to the Cathedral there is a queer gardener who sows for the benefit of all - the customers, for beggars, and any who care to steal. Did he behave sensibly?"
Brother: "Theft is immoral. To sow for thieves is to recognize the right of theives to existence. What would you think if I were to establish a newspaper and, dividing it into sections, provide for blackmailing as well as for liberal ideas? Following the example of that gardener, I ought, logically, to provide a section for blackmailers, the intellectual scoundrels? Yes"
Sister:"I don't know, I know nothing about it. You are probably right, but it seems to me, I feel somehow, that there's something false in our resistance to evil, as though there was something concealed or unsaid. God knows, perhaps our methods of resisting evil belong to the category of prejudices which have become so deeply rooted in us, that we are incapable of parting with them, and therefore cannot form a correct judgement of them"
Brother: "How do you mean?"
Sister: "I don't know how to explain to you. Perhaps man is mistaken in thinking that he is obliged to resist evil and has a right to do so, just as he is mistaken in thinking, for instance, that the heart looks like an ace of hearts. It is very possible in resisting evil, we ought not to use force, but to use what is the very opposite of force - if you, for instance, don't want this picture stolen from you, you ought to give it away rather than lock it up."
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