16. A Conspiracy of Silence
The reason why all this has to be stated here is simply that women,
who could state it much better, have almost unanimously refrained
from discussing such matters at all. One finds, indeed, a sort of
general conspiracy, infinitely alert and jealous, against the
publication of the esoteric wisdom of the sex, and even against the
acknowledgment that any such body of erudition exists at all. Men,
having more vanity and less discretion, area good deal less cautious.
There is, in fact, a whole literature of masculine babbling, ranging
from Machiavelli's appalling confession of political theory to the
egoistic confidences of such men as Nietzsche, Jean-Jacques
Rousseau, Casanova, Max Stirner, Benvenuto
Cellini, Napoleon
Bonaparte and Lord Chesterfield. But it is very rarely that a Marie
Bashkirtsev or Margot Asquith lets down the veils which conceal the
acroamatic doctrine of the other sex. It is transmitted from mother
to daughter, so to speak, behind the door. One observes its practical
workings, but hears little about its principles. The causes of this
secrecy are obvious. Women, in the last analysis, can prevail against
men in the great struggle for power and security only by keeping
them disarmed, and, in the main, unwarned. In a pitched battle,
with the devil taking the hindmost, their physical and economic
inferiority would inevitably bring them to disaster. Thus they have
to apply their peculiar talents warily, and with due regard to the
danger of arousing the foe. He must be attached without any formal
challenge, and even without any suspicion of challenge. This
strategy lies at the heart of what Nietzsche called the slave
morality--in brief, a morality based upon a concealment of egoistic
purpose, a code of ethics having for its foremost character a bold
denial of its actual aim.
