Beyond Good and Evil

Those of us who have a different belief, who do not consider the democratic movement merely a degenerate form of political organization but a degenerate form of humanity, that is, as something that diminishes humanity, makes it mediocre and of lesser worth, where must we reach out to with our hopes?

There's no choice: we must reach for new philosophers, for spirits strong and original enough to provide the stimuli for an opposing way of estimating value and to re-evaluate and invert "eternal values," for those sent out as forerunners, for men of the future who at the present time take up the compulsion and the knot which forces the will of the millennia into a new path. To teach man the future of humanity as his will, as dependent on a man's will, and to prepare for great exploits and comprehensive attempts of discipline and cultivation, so as to put an end to that horrifying domination of nonsense and contingency which up to now has been called "history"—the nonsense of the "greatest number" is only its latest form. For that some new form of philosophers and commanders will at some point be necessary, at the sight of which all hidden, fearsome, and benevolent spirits on earth may well look pale and dwarfish. The image of such a leader is what hovers before our eyes: may I say that out loud, you free spirits?

The conditions which we must partly create and partly exploit for the origin of these leaders, the presumed ways and trials thanks to which a soul might grow to such height and power to feel the compulsion for these tasks, a revaluation of value under whose new pressure and hammer a conscience would be hardened, a heart transformed to bronze, so that it might endure the weight of such responsibility and, on the other hand, the necessity for such leaders, the terrifying danger that they might not appear or could turn degenerate—those are our essential worries and gloom. Do you know that, you free spirits? Those are the heavy distant thoughts and thunderstorms which pass over the heaven of our lives.

There are few pains as severe as having once seen, guessed, and felt how an extraordinary man goes astray and degenerates: someone who has the rare eye for the overall danger that "man" himself is degenerating, someone who, like us, has recognized the monstrous accident which has played its game up to this point with respect to the future of humanity—a game in which there is no hand and not even a "finger of god" playing along!—someone who guesses the fate which lies in the idiotic innocence and the blissful trust in "modern ideas," and even more in the entire Christian-European morality, such a man suffers from an anxiety which cannot be compared with any other—with one look, in fact, he grasps what still might be cultivated in man, given a favourable combination and increase of powers and tasks; he knows with all the knowledge of his conscience how the greatest possibilities for man are still inexhaustible and how often the type man has already stood up to mysterious decisions and new paths: he knows even better, from his own painful memory, what wretched things have so far usually broken apart a being of the highest rank, shattered him, sunk him, and made him pathetic.

The overall degeneration of man, down to what nowadays shows up as the socialist fool and flat head, as their "man of the future," as their ideal—this degeneration and diminution of man to a perfect herd animal (or, as I put it, to a man of "free society"), this beastialization of man into a dwarf animal of equal rights and claims is possible—no doubt of that. Anyone who has once thought this possibility through to the end understands one more horror than the remaining men—and perhaps a new task, as well! . . ..


This is one of my favorite passages by Friederich Nietzche from the book Beyond Good and Evil. I have re-read this book many times since I first acquired it in 1990. Not that I whole-heartedly agree with everything this philosopher wrote, but he helped open my mind tremendously. When I first read this book, I was a staunch right wing, bigot and racist. By reading a lot of his ideals I learned to see from the other persons perspective. Ironically, and I remember this vividly, it was his views on women that changed me. He believed that women should have no rights, and should be treated as secondary in society and live in the shadow of men. This did not sound right to me, I mean, if I were in their shoes, and not to mention, is my mother less important than my father?

So, as I started pondering status in society, I realized that these views were very myopic, and selfish. Oddly enough, Nietzsche is a Marxist, pretty much socialism, but down on women. These views that I started to see as wrong, I had to admit were my own also. I then started to change. No more Rush Limbaugh, No more Ken Hamblin, no more a.m. talk radio. But I had one huge hurdle, where could I find media on the other views, the views that represented what I was thinking. There was none around my area, and I did not get on the Internet for another seven years.

I immersed myself into Philosophy: Voltaire, Plato, Aristotle, Ayn Rand, Nietzsche, Socrates, John Stuart Mill, and others. These people really inspired me to really think, not only of my actions and words, but repercussions of what my come about from my actions and words.

These people can fix most of the world’s problems, by their lessons, and by their examples. The best-kept secrets are written in books, you just have to find them.
Until I die, I will keep searching for the wisdom to pass to my daughter, to help her with what she needs, whether it is fighting personal demons, dealing with others ignorance, or just standing up for herself.

Namaste