The Genealogy of Morals The Complete Works, Volume Thirteen, edited by Dr. Oscar Levy. · Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
28.
If you except the ascetic ideal, man, the animal man had no meaning. His existence on earth contained no end; "What is the purpose of man at all?" was a question without an answer; the _will_ for man and the world was lacking; behind every great human destiny rang as a refrain a still greater "Vanity!" The ascetic ideal simply means this: that something _was lacking_, that a tremendous _void_ encircled man--he did not know how to justify himself, to explain himself, to affirm himself, he _suffered_ from the problem of his own meaning. He suffered also in other ways, he was in the main a _diseased_ animal; but his problem was not suffering itself, but the lack of an answer to that crying question, "_To what purpose_ do we suffer?"
Man, the bravest animal and the one most inured to suffering, does _not_ repudiate suffering in itself: he _wills_ it, he even seeks it out, provided that he is shown a meaning for it, a _purpose_ of suffering. _Not_ suffering, but the senselessness of suffering was the curse which till then lay spread over humanity--_and the ascetic ideal gave it a meaning!_ It was up till then the only meaning; but any meaning is better than no meaning; the ascetic ideal was in that connection the _"faute de mieux" par excellence_ that existed at that time. In that ideal suffering _found an explanation_; the tremendous gap seemed filled; the door to all suicidal Nihilism was closed. The explanation--there is no doubt about it--brought in its train new suffering, deeper, more penetrating, more venomous, gnawing more brutally into life: it brought all suffering under the perspective of _guilt_; but in spite of all that--man was _saved_ thereby, he had a _meaning_, and from henceforth was no more like a leaf in the wind, a shuttle-cock of chance, of nonsense, he could now "will" something--absolutely immaterial to what end, to what purpose, with what means he wished: _the will itself was saved_.
It is absolutely impossible to disguise _what_ in point of fact is made clear by every complete will that has taken its direction from the ascetic ideal: this hate of the human, and even more of the animal, and more still of the material, this horror of the senses, of reason itself, this fear of happiness and beauty, this desire to get right away from all illusion, change, growth, death, wishing and even desiring--all this means--let us have the courage to grasp it--a will for Nothingness, a will opposed to life, a repudiation of the most fundamental conditions of life, but it is and remains _a will_!--and to say at the end that which I said at the beginning--man will wish _Nothingness_ rather than not wish _at all_. [1] An allusion to the celebrated monologue in William Tell. [2] Mistress Sly.--Tr. [3] In the German text "Heiland." This has the double meaning of "healer" and "saviour."--H. B. S. [4] "Horrible beast." [5] "Here I stand! I cannot help myself. God help me! Amen"--were Luther's words before the Reichstag at Worms.--H. B. S. [6] E.g. Lectureships. [7] An allusion to the well-known patriotic song.--H. B. S. PEOPLES AND COUNTRIES. Translated by J. M. KENNEDY. [The following twenty-seven fragments were intended by Nietzsche to form a supplement to Chapter VIII. of _Beyond Good and Evil_, dealing with Peoples and Countries.]
The Europeans now imagine themselves as representing, in the main, the highest types of men on earth. A characteristic of Europeans: inconsistency between word and deed; the Oriental is true to himself in daily life. How the European has established colonies is explained by his nature, which resembles that of a beast of prey. This inconsistency is explained by the fact that Christianity has abandoned the class from which it sprang. This is the difference between us and the Hellenes: their morals grew up among the governing castes. Thucydides' morals are the same as those that exploded everywhere with Plato. Attempts towards honesty at the Renaissance, for example: always for the benefit of the arts. Michael Angelo's conception of God as the "Tyrant of the World" was an honest one.
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.