Nihilism.
114.
As a matter of fact, we are no longer so urgently in need of an
antidote against the first Nihilism: Life is no longer so uncertain,
accidental, and senseless in modern Europe. All such tremendous
_exaggeration_ of the value of men, of the value of evil, etc., are
not so necessary now; we can endure a considerable diminution of this
value, we may grant a great deal of nonsense and accident: the _power_
man has acquired now allows of a _lowering_ of the means of discipline,
of which the strongest was the moral interpretation of the universe.
The hypothesis "God" is much too extreme.
115.
If anything shows that our _humanisation_ is a genuine sign of
_progress,_ it is the fact that we no longer require excessive
contraries, that we no longer require contraries at all....
We may love the senses; for we have spiritualised them in every way and
made them artistic;
We have a right to all things which hitherto have been most
_calumniated._
116.
_The reversal of the order of rank._--Those pious counterfeiters--the
priests--are becoming Chandala in our midst:--they occupy the
position of the charlatan, of the quack, of the counterfeiter, of the
sorcerer: we regard them as corrupters of the will, as the great
slanderers and vindictive enemies of Life, and as the _rebels_ among
the bungled and the botched. We have made our middle class out of our
servant-caste--the Sudra--that is to say, our people or the body which
wields the political power.
On the other hand, the Chandala of former times is paramount: the
_blasphemers,_ the _immoralists,_ the independents of all kinds, the
artists, the Jews, the minstrels--and, at bottom, all _disreputable_
classes are in the van.
We have elevated ourselves to _honourable_ thoughts,--even more, we
determine what honour is on earth,--"nobility." ... All of us to-day
are _advocates of life._--We _Immoralists_ are to-day the _strongest_
power: the other great powers are in need of us ... we re-create the
world in our own image.
We have transferred the label "Chandala" to the _priests,_ the
_backworldsmen,_ and to the deformed _Christian society_ which has
become associated with these people, together with creatures of like
origin, the pessimists, Nihilists, romanticists of pity, criminals, and
men of vicious habits--the whole sphere in which the idea of "God" is
that of _Saviour...._
We are proud of being no longer obliged to be liars, slanderers, and
detractors of Life....
117.
_The advance_ of the nineteenth century upon the eighteenth (at bottom
we _good Europeans_ are carrying on a war against the eighteenth
century):
(1) "The return to Nature" is getting to be understood, ever more
definitely, in a way which is quite the reverse of that in which
Rousseau used the phrase--_away from idylls and operas!_
(2) Ever more decided, more anti-idealistic, more objective, more
fearless, more industrious, more temperate, more suspicious of sudden
changes, _anti-revolutionary_;
(3) The question of _bodily health_ is being pressed ever more
decidedly in front of the health of "the soul": the latter is regarded
as a condition brought about by the former, and bodily health is
believed to be, at least, the prerequisite to spiritual health.
118.
If anything at all has been achieved, it is a more innocent attitude
towards the senses, a happier, more favourable demeanour in regard
to sensuality, resembling rather the position taken up by Goethe; a
prouder feeling has also been developed in knowledge, and the "reine
Thor"[6] meets with little faith.
[Footnote 6: This is a reference to Wagner's _Parsifal._ The character
as is well known, is written to represent a son of heart's affliction,
and a child of wisdom--humble, guileless, loving, pure, and a
fool.--TRANSLATOR'S NOTE.]
119.
We "_objective people._"--It is not "pity" that opens up the way for
_us_ to all that is most remote and most strange in life and culture;
but our accessibility and ingenuousness, which precisely does not
"pity," but rather takes pleasure in hundreds of things which formerly
caused pain (which in former days either outraged or moved us, or in
the presence of which we were either hostile or indifferent). Pain in
all its various phases is now interesting to us: on that account we are
certainly _not_ the more pitiful, even though the sight of pain may
shake us to our foundations and move us to tears: and we are absolutely
not inclined to be more helpful in view thereof.
In this _deliberate_ desire to look on at all pain and error, we have
grown stronger and more powerful than in the eighteenth century; it
is a proof of our increase of strength (we have _drawn closer_ to the
seventeenth and sixteenth centuries). But it is a profound mistake
to regard our "romanticism" as a proof of our "beautified souls." We
want _stronger_ sensations than all _coarser_ ages and classes have
wanted. (This fact must not be confounded with the needs of neurotics
and decadents; in their case, of course, there is a craving for pepper
--even for cruelty.)
We are all seeking conditions _which are emancipated from_ the
bourgeois, and to a greater degree from the priestly, notion of
morality (every book which savours at all of priestdom and theology
gives us the impression of pitiful _niaiserie_ and mental indigence).
"Good company," in fact, finds everything insipid which is not
forbidden and considered compromising in bourgeois circles; and the
case is the same with books, music, politics, and opinions on women.
120.
_The simplification of man in the nineteenth century_ (The eighteenth
century was that of elegance, subtlety, and generous feeling).--Not
"return to nature"; for no natural humanity has ever existed yet.
Scholastic, unnatural, and antinatural values are the rule and the
beginning; man only reaches Nature after a long struggle--he never
turns his "back" to her.... To be natural means, to dare to be as
immoral as Nature is.
We are coarser, more direct, richer in irony towards generous feelings,
even when we are beneath them.
Our _haute volée,_ the society consisting of our rich and leisured
men, is more natural: people hunt each other, the love of the sexes
is a kind of sport in which marriage is both a charm and an obstacle;
people entertain each other and live for the sake of pleasure; bodily
advantages stand in the first rank, and curiosity and daring are the
rule.
Our attitude towards _knowledge_ is more natural; we are innocent
in our absolute spiritual debauchery, we hate pathetic and hieratic
manners, we delight in that which is most strictly prohibited, we
should scarcely recognise any interest in knowledge if we were bored in
acquiring it.
Our attitude to _morality_ is also more natural. Principles have become
a laughing-stock; no one dares to speak of his "duty," unless in irony.
But a helpful, benevolent disposition is highly valued. (Morality is
located in _instinct_ and the rest is despised. Besides this there are
few points of honour.)
Our attitude to _politics_ is more natural: we see problems of power,
of the quantum of power, against another quantum. We do not believe in
a right that does not proceed from a power which is able to uphold it.
We regard all rights as conquests.
Our valuation of _great men and things_ is more natural: we regard
passion as a privilege; we can conceive of nothing great which does not
involve a great crime; all greatness is associated in our minds with a
certain standing-beyond-the-pale in morality.
Our attitude to _Nature_ is more natural: we no longer love her for her
"innocence," her "reason," her "beauty," we have made her beautifully
devilish and "foolish." But instead of despising her on that account,
since then we have felt more closely related to her and more familiar
in her presence. She does _not_ aspire to virtue: we therefore respect
her.
Our attitude towards _Art_ is more natural: we do not exact beautiful,
empty lies, etc., from her; brutal positivism reigns supreme, and it
ascertains things with perfect calm.
In short: there are signs showing that the European of the nineteenth
century is less ashamed of his instincts; he has gone a long way
towards acknowledging his unconditional naturalness and immorality,
_without bitterness_: on the contrary, he is strong enough to endure
this point of view alone.
To some ears this will sound as though _corruption_ had made strides:
and certain it is that man has not drawn nearer to the "Nature"
which Rousseau speaks about, but has gone one step farther in the
civilisation before which Rousseau _stood in horror._ We have grown
_stronger,_ we have drawn nearer to the seventeenth century, more
particularly to the taste which reigned towards its close (Dancourt, Le
Sage, Renard).
121.
_Culture_ versus _Civilisation._--The culminating stages of culture
and civilisation lie apart: one must not be led astray as regards the
fundamental antagonism existing between culture and civilisation.
From the moral standpoint, great periods in the history of culture
have always been periods of corruption; while on the other hand,
those periods in which man was deliberately and compulsorily _tamed_
("civilisation") have always been periods of intolerance towards the
most intellectual and most audacious natures. Civilisation desires
something different from what culture strives after: their aims may
perhaps be opposed....
122.
_What I warn people against_: confounding the instincts of decadence
with those of _humanity_;
Confounding the _dissolving means_ of civilisation _and those which
necessarily promote decadence,_ with _culture_;
Confounding _debauchery,_ and the principle, "laisser aller," with the
_Will to Power_ (the latter is the exact reverse of the former).
123.
The unsolved problems which I set anew: the _problem of civilisation,_
the struggle between Rousseau and Voltaire about the year 1760. Man
becomes deeper, more mistrustful, more "immoral," stronger, more
self-confident--and therefore "_more natural_"; that is "progress."
In this way, by a process of division of labour, the more evil strata
and the milder and tamer strata of society get separated: so that _the
general facts_ are not visible at first sight.... It is a sign of
_strength,_ and of the self-control and fascination of the strong, that
these stronger strata possess the arts in order to make their greater
powers for evil felt as something "_higher_" As soon as there is
"progress" there is a transvaluation of the strengthened factors into
the "good."
124.