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OPPOSITION
means a common subordination to the law, a common ac-
ceptance of its forms of procedure, and a common recogni-
tion of the fact that the decision can be made only ac-
cording to the objective weight of the evidence. The
parties to the contest are subordinate to a social power
and a social order which give significance and security to
that contest and make it rest on a broad basis of commu-
nity and consensus between the opponents similar to the
unity and consensus which are created by the parties to a
contract or a commercial transaction through the realiza-
tion and acceptance of the fact that, apart from the possi-
ble antithesis of interests, they are bound by common rules
and regulations. These common presuppositions, which
exclude from the legal contest everything that is personal,
give a purely factual and objective character to the uni-
tary aspect of the relationship, which is paralleled in the
dualistic aspect of the relationship by the sharpness, bit-
terness. and relentlessness of the struggle itself.
The Conflict of Impersonal Interests
The conflict between individuals on account of imper-
sonal interests bears a similar character. In such a case the
interest in the struggle, and thereby the struggle itself,
becomes differentiated from the person of the opponent.
But the realization of being merely representatives of su-
perindividual claims and of fighting, not for self, but for
the cause gives to the struggle often a radical and merciless
nature. Its character becomes analogous to the conduct
of some entirely unselfish and idealistic people who, sacri-
ficing their own lives for a cause, hold themselves entirely
justified in sacrificing everybody else. Such a struggle
for impersonal interests, but which is fought with all the
strength and resources of the whole personality, bears the
stamp of respectability. The respectable man is the man
117
