NIETZSCHE ON THE SUPERMAN

NIETZSCHE ON THE SUPERMAN

Honor is pagan, Roman, feudal, aristocratic; conscience is Jewish, Christian, bourgeois, democratic. It was the eloquence of the prophets, from Amos to Jesus, that made the view of a subject class an almost universal ethic; the "world" and the "flesh" became synonyms of evil, and poverty a proof of virtue.

This valuation was brought to a peak by Jesus: with him every man was of equal worth, and had equal rights; out of his doctrine came democracy, utilitarianism, socialism... The final stage in this decay is the exaltation of pity and sef-sacrifice, the sentimental comforting of criminals.... Sympathy is legitimate if it is active; but pity is a paralyzing mental luxury, a waste of feeling for the irremediably botched, the incompetent, the defective, the vicious, the culpably diseased and the irremediably criminal. There is a certain indelicacy and intrusiveness in pity; " 'visiting the sick' is an orgasm [!] of superiority in the contemplation of our neighbor's helplessness.

Behind all this "morality" is a secret will to power. Love itself is only a desire for possession; courtship is combat and mating is mastery ... Even in the love of truth is the desire to possess [!] it, perhaps to be its first possessor, to find it virginal [!].

In strong men there is very little attempt to conceal desire under the cover of reason; their simple argument is, "I will." In the uncorrupted vigor of the master soul, desire is its own justification; and conscience, pity or remorse can find no entrance. But so far has the Judaeo-Christian-democratic point-of-view prevailed in modern times, that even the strong are now ashamed of their strength and their health, and begin to seek "reasons." The aristocratic virtues and valuations are dying out. The strong are no longer permitted to exercise their strength; they must become as far as possible like the weak... the instincts of the strong - to hunt, to fight, to conquer and to rule - are introverted into self-laceration for lack of outlet; they beget asceticism and the "bad conscience".

The formula for decay is that the virtues proper to the herd infect the leaders, and break them into common clay... the "evil" virtues of the strong are as necessary in a society as the "good" virtues of the weak. Severity, violence, danger, war, are as valuable as kindliness and peace; great individuals appear only in times of danger and violence and merciless necessity. The best thing in man is strength of will, power and permanence of passion; without passion one is mere milk, incapable of deeds. Greed, envy, even hatred, are indispensable items in the process of struggle, selection and survival. We must beware of being too good.

Nietzsche is consoled to find so much evil and cruelty in the world; he takes a sadistic pleasure in reflecting on the extent to which, he thinks, "cruelty constituted the great joy and delight of ancient man"; and he believes that our pleasure in the tragic drama, or in anything sublime, is a refined and vicarious cruelty. "Man is the cruelest [cruellest] animal," says Zarathustra. "When gazing at tragedies, bull-fights and crucifixions he hath hitherto felt happier than at any other time on earth"; he could put up with suffering now, by contemplating the eternal punishment of his oppressors [aliens - G] in the other world.

The real test of a man, or a group, or a species, is energy, capacity, power... The decadent says, "Life is worth nothing"; let him [her] rather say, "I am worth nothing." Why should life be worth living when all the heroic values in it have been permitted to decay, and democracy -- that is, disbelief in all great men -- ruins, with every decade, another people?

The gregarious European man nowadays assumes an air as if he were the only kind of man that is allowable; he glorifies his qualities, such as public spirit, kindness, deference, industry, temperance, modesty, indulgence, sympathy -- by virtue of which he is gentle, endurable, and useful to the herd -- as the peculiarly human virtues. In cases, however, where it is believed that the leader cannot be dispensed with, attempt after attempt is made nowadays to replace commanders by the summoning together of clever gregarious men; all representative constitutions, for example, are of this origin. In spite of all, what a blessing, what a deliverance from a weight becoming unendurable, is the appearance of an absolute ruler for these gregarious Europeans -- of this fact the effect of the appearance of Napoleon was the last great proof; the history of the influence of Napoleon is almost the history of the higher happiness to which the entire century has attained in its worthiest individuals and periods.

Just as morality lies not in kindness but in strength, so the goal of human effort should be not the elevation of all but the development of finer and stronger individuals. "Not mankind, but superman is the goal."

How absurd it is, after all, to let higher individuals marry for love -- heroes with servant girls, and geniuses with seamstresses! ... it is not given to man to love and be wise. We should make love a legal impediment to marriage. The best should marry only the best; love should be left to the rabble.

(From Will Durant: THE STORY OF PHILOSOPHY, Pocket Books.)

The above discussion of the philosophy of Nietzsche sounds to Me as if frustrated and depressed Eve is talking about Me.

Kishalay Sinha [G]