The Will to Power. Friedrich Nietzsche

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      33. Causes effecting the rise of pessimism: (1) The most powerful instincts and those which promised most for the future have hitherto been calumniated, so that life has a curse upon it. (2) The growing bravery and the more daring mistrust on the part of man have led him to discover the fact that these instincts cannot be cut adrift from life, and thus he turns to embrace life. (3) Only the most mediocre, who are not conscious of this conflict, prosper; the higher species fail, and as an example of degeneration tend to dispose all hearts against them on the other hand, there is some indignation caused by the mediocre positing themselves as the end and meaning of all things. No one can any longer reply to the question: "Why?" (4) Belittlement, susceptibility to pain, unrest, haste, and confusion are steadily increasing the materialization of all these tendencies, which is called" civilization," becomes every day more simple, with the result that, in the face of the monstrous machine, the individual despairs and surrenders.

      34. Modern pessimism is an expression of the uselessness only of the modern world, not of the world and existence as such.

      35. The "preponderance of pain over pleasure" or the reverse (hedonism); both of these doctrines are already signposts to nihilism. . . . For here, in both cases, no other final purpose is sought than the phenomenon pleasure or pain. But only a man who no longer dares to posit a will, a purpose, and a final goal can speak in this way according to every healthy type of man, the worth of life is certainly not measured by the standard of these secondary things. And a preponderance of pain would be possible and, in spite of it, a mighty will, a saying of yea to life, and a holding of this preponderance for necessary. "life is not worth living"; "resignation"; "what is the good of tears?" this is a feeble and sentimental attitude of mind. "Un monstre gai vaut mieux qu’un sentimental ennuyeux."

      36. The philosophic nihilist is convinced that all phenomena are without sense and are in vain, and that there ought to be no such thing as being without sense and in vain. But whence comes this "there ought not to be?" whence this "sense" and this standard? At bottom the nihilist supposes that the sight of such a desolate, useless being is unsatisfying to the philosopher, and fills him with desolation and despair. This aspect of the case is opposed to our subtle sensibilities as a philosopher. It leads to the absurd conclusion that the character of existence must perforce afford pleasure to the philosopher if it is to have any right to subsist. Now it is easy to understand that happiness and unhappiness, within the phenomena of this world, can only serve the purpose of means: the question yet remaining to be answered is, whether it will ever be possible for us to perceive the "object" and "purpose" of life, whether the problem of purposelessness or the reverse is not quite beyond our ken.

      37. The development of nihilism out of pessimism. The denaturalization of values. Scholasticism of values. The values isolated, idealistic, instead of ruling and leading action, turn against it and condemn it. Opposites introduced in the place of natural gradations and ranks. Hatred of the order of rank. Opposites are compatible with a plebeian age, because they are more easy to grasp. The rejected world is opposed to an artificially constructed "true and valuable" one. At last we discover out of what material the "true" world was built; all that remains, now, is the rejected world, and to the account of our reasons for rejecting it we place our greatest disillusionment. At this point nihilism is reached; the directing values have been retained nothing more! This gives rise to the problem of strength and weakness: (1) The weak fall to pieces upon it; (2) The strong destroy what does not fall to pieces of its own accord; (3) The strongest overcome the directing values. The whole condition of affairs produces the tragic age.

      3. THE NIHILISTIC MOVEMENT AS AN EXPRESSION OF DECADENCE.

      38. Just lately an accidental and in every way inappropriate term has been very much misused: everywhere people are speaking of "pessimism". and there is a fight around the question (to which some replies must be forthcoming): which is right pessimism or optimism? People have not yet seen what is so terribly obvious namely, that pessimism is not a problem but a symptom, that the term ought to be re placed by "nihilism," that the question, "to be or not to be," is itself an illness, a sign of degeneracy, an idiosyncrasy. The nihilistic movement is only an expression of physiological decadence.

      39. To be understood: That every kind of decline and tendency to sickness has incessantly been at work in helping to create general evaluations: that in those valuations which now dominate, decadence has even begun to preponderate, that we have not only to combat the conditions which present misery and degeneration have brought into being; but that all decadence, previous to that of our own times, has been transmitted and has therefore remained an active force amongst us. A universal departure of this kind, on the part of man, from his fundamental instincts, such universal decadence of the valuing judgment, is the note of interrogation par excellence, the real riddle, which the animal "man" sets to all philosophers.

      40. The notion " decadence ": Decay, decline, and waste, are, per se, in no way open to objection; they are the natural consequences of life and vital growth. The phenomenon of decadence is just as necessary to life as advance or progress is: we are not in a position which enables us to suppress it. On the contrary, reason would have it retain its rights. It is disgraceful on the part of socialist-theorists to argue that circumstances and social combinations could be devised which would put an end to all vice, illness, crime, prostitution, and poverty. . . . But that is tantamount to condemning life ... a society is not at liberty to remain young. And even in its prime it must bring forth ordure and decaying matter. The more energetically and daringly it advances, the richer will it be in failures and in deformities, and the nearer it will be to its fall. Age is not deferred by means of institutions. Nor is illness. Nor is vice.

      41. Fundamental aspect of the nature of decadence: what has heretofore been regarded as its causes are its effects. In this way, the whole perspective of the problems of morality is altered. All the struggle of morals against vice, luxury, crime, and even against illness, seems a naiveté, a superfluous effort: there is no such thing as "improvement" (a word against repentance). Decadence itself is not a thing that can be withstood: it is absolutely necessary and is proper to all ages and all peoples. That which must be withstood, and by all means in our power, is the spreading of the contagion among the sound parts of the organism. Is that done? The very reverse is done. It is precisely on this account that one makes a stand on behalf of humanity. How do the highest values created hitherto stand in relation to this fundamental question in biology? Philosophy, religion, morality, art, etc. (The remedy: militarism, for instance, from Napoleon onwards, who regarded civilization as his natural enemy.)

      42. All those things which heretofore have been regarded as the causes of degeneration are really its effects. But those things also which have been regarded as the remedies of degeneration are only palliatives of certain effects thereof: the "cured" are types of the degenerate. The results of decadence: vice viciousness; illness sickliness; crime criminality; celibacy sterility; hysteria the weakness of the will; alcoholism; pessimism, anarchy; debauchery (also of the spirit). The calumniators, underminers, sceptics, and destroyers.

      43. Concerning the notion "decadence." (i) Scepticism is a result of decadence: just as spiritual debauchery is. Nihilism. (2) Moral corruption is a result of decadence (the weakness of the will and the need of strong stimulants). (3) Remedies, whether psychological or moral, do not alter the march of decadence, they do not arrest anything; physiologically they do not count. A peep into the enormous futility of these pretentious "reactions"; they are forms of anaesthetizing oneself against certain fatal symptoms resulting from the prevailing condition of things; they do not eradicate the morbid element; they are often heroic attempts to cancel the decadent man, to allow only a minimum of his deleterious influence to survive. (4) Nihilism is not a cause, but only the rationale of decadence. (5) The "good" and the "bad" are no more than two types of decadence: they come together in all its fundamental phenomena. (6) The social problem is a result of decadence. (7) Illnesses, more particularly those attacking the nerves and the head, are signs that the defensive strength of strong nature is lacking; a proof of this is that irritability which causes pleasure and pain to be regarded as problems of the first order.

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