854.
In this age of universal suffrage, in which everybody is allowed to
sit in judgment upon everything and everybody, I feel compelled to
re-establish the order of rank.
855.
Quanta of power alone determine rank and distinguish rank: nothing else
does.
856.
_The will to power._--How must those men be constituted who would
undertake this transvaluation? The order of rank as the order of power:
war and danger are the prerequisites which allow of a rank maintaining
its conditions. The prodigious example: man in Nature--the weakest and
shrewdest creature making himself master, and putting a yoke upon all
less intelligent forces.
857.
I distinguish between the type which represents ascending life and
that which represents decay, decomposition and weakness. Ought one to
suppose that the question of rank between these two types can be at all
doubtful?
858.
The modicum of power which you represent decides your rank; all the
rest is cowardice.
859.
The advantages of standing detached from one's age.--Detached from
the two movements, that of individualism and that of collectivist
morality; for even the first does not recognise the order of rank, and
would give one individual the same freedom as another. My thoughts are
not concerned with the degree of freedom which should be granted to
the one or to the other or to all, but with the degree of power which
the one or the other should exercise over his neighbour or over all;
and more especially with the question to what extent a sacrifice of
freedom, or even enslavement, may afford the basis for the cultivation,
of a _superior_ type. In plain words: _how could one sacrifice the
development of mankind_ in order to assist a higher species than man to
come into being.
860.
_Concerning rank._--The terrible consequences of "equality"--in the end
everybody thinks he has the right to every problem. All order of rank
has vanished.
861.
It is necessary for _higher_ men to declare war upon the masses! In
all directions mediocre people are joining hands in order to make
themselves masters. Everything that pampers, that softens, and that
brings the "people" or "woman" to the front, operates in favour of
universal suffrage,--that is to say, the dominion of _inferior_ men.
But we must make reprisals, and draw the whole state of affairs (which
commenced in Europe with Christianity) to the light of day and to
judgment.
862.
A teaching is needed which is strong enough to work in a _disciplinary_
manner; it should operate in such a way as to strengthen the strong and
to paralyse and smash up the world-weary.
The annihilation of declining races. The decay of Europe. The
annihilation of slave-tainted valuations. The dominion of the world
as a means to the rearing of a higher type. The annihilation of the
humbug which is called morality (Christianity as a hysterical kind
of honesty in this regard: Augustine, Bunyan.) The annihilation of
universal suffrage--that is to say, that system by means of which the
lowest natures prescribe themselves as a law for higher natures. The
annihilation of mediocrity and its prevalence. (The one-sided, the
individuals--peoples; constitutional plenitude should be aimed at by
means of the coupling of opposites; to this end race-combinations
should be tried.) The new kind of courage--no _a priori_ truths (those
who were accustomed to believe in something sought such truths!),
but _free_ submission to a ruling thought, which has its time; for
instance, time conceived as the quality of space, etc.