“Here the basic reversal is most deadly. The issue has been perverted andman has been left no alternative—and no freedom. As poles of good andevil, he was offered two conceptions: egoism and altruism. Egoism was heldto mean the sacrifice of others to self. Altruism—the sacrifice of self toothers. This tied man irrevocably to other men and left him nothing but achoice of pain: his own pain borne for the sake of others or pain inflictedupon others for the sake of self. When it was added that man must find joy inself-immolation, the trap was closed. Man was forced to accept masochismas his ideal—under the threat that sadism was his only alternative. This wasthe greatest fraud ever perpetrated on mankind.
