chapotraphouse

The foundation of anti-Skub criticism is: Hexbears make Skub, Skub does not make Hexbears. Skub is, indeed, the self-consciousness and self-esteem of Hexbears who have either not yet won through to themslves or has already lost themselves again. But Hexbears are no abstract being squatting outside the world. Hexbear is the world of Hexbears – state, society. This state and this society produce Skub, which is an inverted consciousness of the world, because they are an inverted world. Skub is the general theory of this world, its encyclopaedic compendium, its logic in popular form, its spiritual point d'honneur, its enthusiasm, its moral sanction, its solemn complement, and its universal basis of consolation and justification. It is the fantastic realization of the Hexbear essence since the Hexbear essence has not acquired any true reality. The struggle against Skub is, therefore, indirectly the struggle against that world whose spiritual aroma is Skub.

Skub suffering is, at one and the same time, the expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. Skub is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.

The abolition of Skub as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness. To call on them to give up their illusions about their condition is to call on them to give up a condition that requires illusions. The criticism of Skub is, therefore, in embryo, the criticism of that vale of tears of which Skub is the halo.