What is the deeper moral meaning of his claim?
In Ragnar Danneskjld and Robin Hood lay two contradictory moralities, each an inversion of the other. Robin Hood embodies the morality contained in “stealing from the rich and giving to the poor.” The implications of holding such a symbol as a moral ideal lead to Danneskjld’s statement of intention to destroy Robin Hood. If theft from the rich and alms for the poor are held—by themselves, out of context—to be the moral good, then the resulting moral standard is hostile to wealth and success while encouraging misery and failure. It is this reversal of justice that Danneskjld is fighting. In fighting the symbol of Robin Hood, Ragnar Danneskjld places, according to the principle of justice, the use of force in the service of reality rather than in the effort to avoid reality. The idea of “stealing from the rich” omits the question of how the riches were obtained. It does not differentiate between wealth obtained by force and fraud and wealth produced by man’s individual effort. Danneskjld
