Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm, 1844-1900; Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm, 1844-1900 -- Criticism and interpretation; Philosophy
Liberalism, or, in plain English, the _transformation of mankind into
cattle._ 94
Freedom is the will to be responsible for ourselves. It is to
preserve the distance which separates us from other men. To grow more
indifferent to hardship, to severity, to privation, and even to life
itself. To be ready to sacrifice men for one's cause, one's self
included. Freedom denotes that the virile instincts which rejoice in
war and in victory, prevail over other instincts; for instance, over
the instincts of "happiness." The man who has won his freedom, and how
much more so, therefore, the spirit that has won his freedom, tramples
ruthlessly upon that contemptible kind of comfort which tea-grocers,
Christians, cows, women, Englishmen and other democrats worship in
their dreams. The free man is a _warrior._ 94-95
By showing ever more and more favour to _love-marriages,_ the very
foundation of matrimony, that which alone makes it an institution, has
been undermined. No institution ever has been nor ever will be built
upon an idiosyncrasy; as I say, marriage cannot be based upon "love."
97-98
The mere fact that there is such a thing as the question of the
working-man is due to stupidity, or at bottom to degenerate instincts
which are the cause of all the stupidity of modern times. Concerning
certain things _no questions ought to be put:_ the first imperative
principle of instinct. For the life of me I cannot see what people
want to do with the working-man of Europe; now that they have made a
question of him. He is far too comfortable to cease from questioning,
ever more and more, and with ever less modesty. After all, he has
the majority on his side. There is now not the slightest hope that
an unassuming and contented sort of man, after the style of the
Chinaman, will come into being in this quarter: and this would have
been the reasonable course, it was even a dire necessity. What has
been done? Everything has been done with the view of nipping the
very pre-requisite of this accomplishment in the bud,--with the most
frivolous thoughtlessness those self-same instincts by means of which
a working-class becomes possible, and _tolerable_ even to its members
themselves, have been destroyed root and branch. The working-man has
been declared fit for military service; he has been granted the right
of combination, and of franchise: can it be wondered at that he already
regards his condition as one of distress (expressed morally, as an
injustice)? But, again I ask, what do people want? If they desire a
certain end, then they should desire the means thereto. If they will
have slaves, then it is madness to educate them to be masters. 98-99
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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