The programme of the greedy and
tyrannous never varies; Alberich proclaims it; "The whole world will I
win," and it is his daemonic will to depreciate love and set up power as
the only value, so that nobody shall doubt his greatness and unique
genius. "As I renounce love, so all shall renounce it, with gold have I
bought you, for gold shall you crave." Love shall die and lust shall
take its place; he will force even the wives of the gods to do his will,
for his wealth has made him master of the whole world. Compared to his
restless activity, the giant "Fafner" is "stupid"; he is incapable of
transforming gold into power; he merely enjoys its possession, content
with the consciousness of his wealth.
But the curse of Alberich, the first who transmuted the shining metal
into money, rests on gold and power. "It shall not bring gladness--who
has it be seared by sorrow, who lacks it devoured by envy...." The curse
of the eternal concatenation: tyranny--slavery, the care which
accompanies wealth and the envy of the have-nots, can only be lifted
from the world by a man who is inwardly free, who is neither master nor
slave.
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