Nietzsche and Other Exponents of Individualism — Nietzsche — John Shaqi
Nietzsche and Other Exponents of Individualism
Nietzsche · en
Nietzsche is not aware that the self changes and that it grows by the
acquisition of truth. He treats the self as remaining the same, and
truth as that which our will has made conceivable. Truth to him is a
mere creature of the self. Here is Zarathustra's condemnation of man's
search for truth:
"'Will unto truth' ye call, ye wisest men, what inspireth
you and maketh you ardent?
"'Will unto the conceivableness of all that is,'--thus I
call your will!
"All that is ye are going to make conceivable. For with
good mistrust ye doubt whether it is conceivable.
"But it hath to submit itself and bend before yourselves!
Thus your will willeth. Smooth it shall become and subject
unto spirit as its mirror and reflected image.
"That is your entire will, ye wisest men, as a will
unto power; even when ye speak of good and evil and of
valuations.
"Ye will create the world before which to kneel down. Thus
it is your last hope and drunkenness."
Recognition of truth is regarded as submission:
"To be true,--few are able to be so! And he who is able
doth not want to be so. But least of all the good are able.
"Oh, these good people! _Good men never speak the truth_.
To be good in that way is a sickness for the mind.
"They yield, these good men, they submit themselves;
their heart saith what is said unto it, their foundation
obeyeth. But whoever obeyeth doth not hear _himself_!"
Nietzsche despises science. He must have had sorry experiences with
scientists who offered him the dry bones of scholarship as scientific
truth.
"When I lay sleeping, a sheep ate at the ivy-wreath of my
head,--ate and said eating: 'Zarathustra is no longer a
scholar.'
"Said it and went off clumsily and proudly. So a child
told me.
"This is the truth: I have departed from the house of
scholars, and the door I have shut violently behind me.
"Too long sat my soul hungry at their table. Not, as they,
am I trained for perceiving as for cracking nuts.
"Freedom I love, and a breeze over a fresh soil. And I
would rather sleep on ox-skins then on their honors and
respectabilities.
"I am too hot and am burnt with mine own thoughts, so as
often to take my breath away. Then I must go into the open
air and away from all dusty rooms.
"Like millworks they work, and like corn-crushers. Let
folk only throw their grain into them! They know only too
well how to grind corn and make white dust out of it.
"They look well at each other's fingers and trust each
other not over-much. Ingenious in little stratagems, they
wait for those whose knowledge walketh on lame feet; like
spiders they wait.
"They also know how to play with false dice; and I found
them playing so eagerly that they perspired from it.