Men and the Herd
Man is different from the beast. Or at least he should be. It’s not always the case, of course. And what separates man from beast? Self-awareness. Or, metaphorically speaking:
“Man on the other hand resists the great and ever greater weight of the past: this oppresses him and bends him sideways, it encumbers his gait like an invisible and sinister burden which, for the sake of appearances, he may deny at times and which in intercourse with his equals he is all too pleased to deny: to excite their envy.”
500 Years of Progress?
The transformation from a theologically-based history to one of scientific enlightenment is not one which Nietzsche views as a particularly earth-shattering transformation. In fact, his view is that little changed over the course of the previous 500 or so years:
“In this sense we still live in the Middle Ages and history is still a disguised theology.”
Science and Slavery
With stated regret immediately following, Nietzsche turns to the metaphorical jargon of slavery to describe the potential for the labor markets to come as the age of science continues to evolve:
“if men are to labour and become useful in the scientific factory before they are ripe, science will soon be ruined as well as the slaves put to use all too soon in this factory.”
Sick Sad World
For a writer too often—and far too mistakenly—associated with Nazi ideology, Nietzsche was firm believer in the goodness of culture. It was he who wrote that part of a full life is giving style to one’s character. A character without style is no character at all and a life without purpose is no place to construct culture. The obstruction to culture is not found in censorship, but the reverse: a manner of living which demands no sacrifice and no work.
“But it is sick, this unfettered life, and must be healed.”
European Hubris
A great sense of self-satisfaction was growing among Europeans in the 19th century that they had, at least, discovered the secrets of the failures of the past and were on the verge of taming the primitive notions hamstringing history from progressing at the rate it should. Nietzsche, as usual, was not so sure, addressing the “Overproud European of the nineteenth century” as one who had gone mad, not realizing that while he did admittedly “climb the sunbeams of your knowledge upwards to heaven” he had yet to realize he had also led “downwards to chaos.”
