The Will to Power · Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
889.
The economic valuation of all the ideals that have existed hitherto--that is to say, the selection and rearing of definite passions and states at the cost of other passions and states. The lawgiver (or the instinct of the community) selects a number of states and passions the existence of which guarantees the performance of regular actions (mechanical actions would thus be the result of the regular requirements of those passions and states). In the event of these states and passions containing ingredients which were painful, a means would have to be found for overcoming this painfulness by means of a valuation; pain would have to be interpreted as something valuable, as something pleasurable in a higher sense. Conceived in a formula: "_How does something unpleasant become pleasant?_" For instance, when our obedience and our submission to the law become honoured, thanks to the energy, power, and self-control they entail. The same holds good of our public spirit, of our neighbourliness, of our patriotism, our "humanisation," our "altruism," and our "heroism." The _object of all idealism_ should, be to induce people to do unpleasant things cheerfully. The _belittlement_ of man must be held as the chief aim for a long while: because what is needed in the first place is a broad basis from which a stronger species of man may arise (to what extent hitherto has _every stronger_ species of man arisen from a _substratum of inferior people?_).
The absurd and contemptible form of idealism which would not have mediocrity mediocre, and which instead of feeling triumphant at being exceptional, becomes _indignant_ at cowardice, falseness, pettiness, and wretchedness. _We should not wish things to be any different,_ we should make the gulfs even _wider_!--The higher types among men should be compelled to distinguish themselves by means of the sacrifices which they make to their own existence. _Principal point of view; distances_ must be established, but _no contrasts must be created._ The _middle classes_ must be dissolved, and their influence decreased: this is the principal means of maintaining distances. Who would dare to disgust the mediocre of their mediocrity! As you observe, I do precisely the reverse: every step away from mediocrity--thus do I teach--leads to _immorality._ To hate mediocrity is unworthy of a philosopher: it is almost a note of interrogation to his "_right_ to philosophy." It is precisely because he is the exception that he must protect the rule and ingratiate all mediocre people. What I combat: that an exceptional form should make war upon the rule--instead of understanding that the continued existence of the rule is the first condition of the value of the exception. For instance, there are women who, instead of considering their abnormal thirst for knowledge as a distinction, would fain dislocate the whole status of womanhood.
The _increase of strength_ despite the temporary ruin of the individual:-- A new level must be established; We must have a method of storing up forces for the maintenance of small performances, in opposition to economic waste; Destructive nature must for once be reduced to an _instrument_ of this economy of the future; The weak must be maintained, because there is an enormous mass of _finicking_ work to be done; The weak and the suffering must be upheld in their belief that existence is still possible; _Solidarity_ must be implanted as an instinct opposed to the instinct of fear and servility; War must be made upon accident, even upon the accident of "the great man." War upon _great_ men justified on economic grounds. Great men are dangerous; they are accidents, exceptions, tempests, which are strong enough to question things which it has taken time to build and establish. Explosive material must not only be discharged harmlessly, but, if possible, its discharge must be _prevented_ altogether, this is the fundamental instinct of all civilised society.
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.