I was reading last night after retiring from the board (I hit posting limits), and quite coincidentally (in context with a couple of recent threads I had posted on yesterday) read a chapter in the Nietzsche's Thus Spake Zarathustra that has a connection with the discussion here, and here. "The New Idol". Apparently, along with the assertion that "God is Dead", a new idol, the State, must be erected in its place as a savior. I asked myself, why would anyone surrender their freedom to a greater power, the power of the state? Fear. It is like a horse that accepts a saddle and bridle and mounts a rider upon itself, out of fear for the wolf. It may defeat the wolf but it will be forever enslaved to the rider.
XI. THE NEW IDOL.
Somewhere there are still peoples and herds, but not with us, my brethren:
here there are states.
A state? What is that? Well! open now your ears unto me, for now will I
say unto you my word concerning the death of peoples.
A state, is called the coldest of all cold monsters. Coldly lieth it also;
and this lie creepeth from its mouth: "I, the state, am the people."
It is a lie! Creators were they who created peoples, and hung a faith and
a love over them: thus they served life.
Destroyers, are they who lay snares for many, and call it the state: they
hang a sword and a hundred cravings over them.
Where there is still a people, there the state is not understood, but hated
as the evil eye, and as sin against laws and customs.
This sign I give unto you: every people speaketh its language of good and
evil: this its neighbour understandeth not. Its language hath it devised
for itself in laws and customs.
But the state lieth in all languages of good and evil; and whatever it
saith it lieth; and whatever it hath it hath stolen.
False is everything in it; with stolen teeth it biteth, the biting one.
False are even its bowels.
Confusion of language of good and evil; this sign I give unto you as the
sign of the state. Verily, the will to death, indicateth this sign!
Verily, it beckoneth unto the preachers of death!
Many too many are born: for the superfluous ones was the state devised!
See just how it enticeth them to it, the many-too-many! How it swalloweth
and cheweth and recheweth them!
"On earth there is nothing greater than I: it is I who am the regulating
finger of God"--thus roareth the monster. And not only the long-eared and
short-sighted fall upon their knees!
Ah! even in your ears, ye great souls, it whispereth its gloomy lies! Ah!
it findeth out the rich hearts which willingly lavish themselves!
Yea, it findeth you out too, ye conquerors of the old God! Weary ye became
of the conflict, and now your weariness serveth the new idol!
Heroes and honourable ones, it would fain set up around it, the new idol!
Gladly it basketh in the sunshine of good consciences,--the cold monster!
Everything will it give YOU, if YE worship it, the new idol: thus it
purchaseth the lustre of your virtue, and the glance of your proud eyes.
It seeketh to allure by means of you, the many-too-many! Yea, a hellish
artifice hath here been devised, a death-horse jingling with the trappings
of divine honours!
Yea, a dying for many hath here been devised, which glorifieth itself as
life: verily, a hearty service unto all preachers of death!
The state, I call it, where all are poison-drinkers, the good and the bad:
the state, where all lose themselves, the good and the bad: the state,
where the slow suicide of all--is called "life."
Just see these superfluous ones! They steal the works of the inventors and
the treasures of the wise. Culture, they call their theft--and everything
becometh sickness and trouble unto them!
Just see these superfluous ones! Sick are they always; they vomit their
bile and call it a newspaper. They devour one another, and cannot even
digest themselves.
Just see these superfluous ones! Wealth they acquire and become poorer
thereby. Power they seek for, and above all, the lever of power, much
money--these impotent ones!
See them clamber, these nimble apes! They clamber over one another, and
thus scuffle into the mud and the abyss.
Towards the throne they all strive: it is their madness--as if happiness
sat on the throne! Ofttimes sitteth filth on the throne.--and ofttimes
also the throne on filth.
Madmen they all seem to me, and clambering apes, and too eager. Badly
smelleth their idol to me, the cold monster: badly they all smell to me,
these idolaters.
My brethren, will ye suffocate in the fumes of their maws and appetites!
Better break the windows and jump into the open air!
Do go out of the way of the bad odour! Withdraw from the idolatry of the
superfluous!
Do go out of the way of the bad odour! Withdraw from the steam of these
human sacrifices!
Open still remaineth the earth for great souls. Empty are still many sites
for lone ones and twain ones, around which floateth the odour of tranquil
seas.
Open still remaineth a free life for great souls. Verily, he who
possesseth little is so much the less possessed: blessed be moderate
poverty!
There, where the state ceaseth--there only commenceth the man who is not
superfluous: there commenceth the song of the necessary ones, the single
and irreplaceable melody.
There, where the state CEASETH--pray look thither, my brethren! Do ye not
see it, the rainbow and the bridges of the Superman?--
Thus spake Zarathustra.
BTS