Read Online Dark Tunnel by Ross MacDonald - Free Book Online Page B

him. Frau Shantz spoke only German but her cooking had a pleasant French accent. Good food and two Martinis had made me very comfortable from the neck down, and even Peter, though his invisible eyebrows kept their complacent scowl, had broken down and begun to talk.
    Partly in the hope of finding out more than they had told me and partly for the sake of talking about her, I told them some of the things I knew about Ruth. I watched their faces when I described her attempt to protect the old Jewish doctor.
    Dr. Schneider surprised me by looking entirely sympathetic and saying, “She was very brave, very brave. If more Germans had such moral courage, certain—ah—conditions would be impossible.”
    “She’s a virtuous woman,” I said, “with the courage to follow it through.”
    “Courageous, certainly,” Peter Schneider said. “Nobody can deny it. But why do you call her virtuous, Dr. Branch? Is virtue merely physical courage, the early Roman virtus ?”
    “Moral courage as well,” I said, looking into his eyes to see what he was getting at. His eyes said nothing: it was like looking into the depths of a wash-basin. I went on: “Her feelings were decent and right and she acted in accord with them.”
    “Naturally, we sympathize with her feelings because they agree with our prejudices, against anti-Semitism for example. But is virtue merely a matter of the feelings of the individual? What if the feelings are wrong? Say I have an uncontrollable urge to maim small children, is such an act sanctioned and made virtuous by my mere possession of such an impulse? I distrust the feelings of men in general. I subscribe to the doctrine of original sin.”
    “I hadn’t thought of you as a religious man, Mr. Schneider,” I said in the hope of insulting him. “You’d base your ethics in dogma or revelation then, would you?”
    “Of course not, I was speaking figuratively. I base morality in the common good. If you act for the common good, you are doing the right thing.”
    “Whose common good?”
    “The good of the community. The political group or state, whatever the group happens to be.”
    “Is there no morality above the state?”
    “Obviously not. Morality varies from place to place. In Russia it is not considered moral to deprive colored people of civil rights. In America and India it is considered moral.”
    “That merely proves that the state or community can be wrong.”
    “Who is to decide that the state is wrong? The individual following some inner light?” There was a sneer in his tone but his face was blank of anything but the permanent scowl which grew more complacent by the minute. I looked towards Dr. Schneider at the head of the table. His eyes were hooded and his face was shut up.
    “Call it inner light if you wish, or conscience or the superego. Whatever you call it, it knows that some things are wrong.”
    “You are an unconscious anarchist, Dr. Branch. You would set up the feeling or impulses of the individual against the laws, against the good of the state.”
    “If the laws are evil, they are not for the good of the state. Denying the validity of the individual conscience leaves no check on the state. Whatever it does is right.”
    “If it is successful, yes,” Peter Schneider said, as if that clinched the argument. “If unsuccessful, no.”
    “Successful in doing what?”
    “In furthering the interests of its people, or as many of them as possible.”
    “You’re arguing in a circle,” I said, “but let that pass. Can the good of the majority of the people sanction, or perhaps even include, the persecution or misery of a minority?”
    “Obviously,” Peter said, and leaned forward across the table. “I cite the Negroes in the United States.”
    “And the Jews in Germany?”
    “You’re trying to drive me into an anti-Semitic position, Dr. Branch.”
    “Not at all. I’m trying to drive you out of an anti-Semitic position.”
    “Nonsense. I merely said that the individual