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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Perfect Wagnerite: A Commentary on the Niblung's Ring by George Bernard Shaw: Wotan, has removed his last moral scruple about becoming a thief.
Wotan will now rob the dwarf without remorse; for is it not
positively his highest duty to take this power out of such evil
hands and use it himself in the interests of Godhead? On the
loftiest moral grounds, he lets Loki do his worst.
A little cunningly disguised flattery makes short work of
Alberic. Loki pretends to be afraid of him; and he swallows that
bait unhesitatingly. But how, enquires Loki, is he to guard
against the hatred of his million slaves? Will they not steal
from him, whilst he sleeps, the magic ring, the symbol of his
power, which he has forged from the gold of the Rhine? "You think
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