Page 146 - women-in-love

gone, Birkin turned round in bitter declamation, saying:
‘It is just the opposite, just the contrary, Hermione. We
are all different and unequal in spirit—it is only the SO-
CIAL differences that are based on accidental material
conditions. We are all abstractly or mathematically equal,
if you like. Every man has hunger and thirst, two eyes, one
nose and two legs. We’re all the same in point of number.
But spiritually, there is pure difference and neither equality
nor inequality counts. It is upon these two bits of knowledge
that you must found a state. Your democracy is an absolute
lie—your brotherhood of man is a pure falsity, if you apply
it further than the mathematical abstraction. We all drank
milk first, we all eat bread and meat, we all want to ride in
motor-cars—therein lies the beginning and the end of the
brotherhood of man. But no equality.
‘But I, myself, who am myself, what have I to do with
equality with any other man or woman? In the spirit, I am
as separate as one star is from another, as different in qual-
ity and quantity. Establish a state on THAT. One man isn’t
any better than another, not because they are equal, but be-
cause they are intrinsically OTHER, that there is no term
of comparison. The minute you begin to compare, one man
is seen to be far better than another, all the inequality you
can imagine is there by nature. I want every man to have
his share in the world’s goods, so that I am rid of his im-
portunity, so that I can tell him: ‘Now you’ve got what you
want—you’ve got your fair share of the world’s gear. Now,
you one-mouthed fool, mind yourself and don’t obstruct
me.‘‘

146 Women in Love