Beyond Good and Evil: Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future - EILFE

Beyond Good and Evil
which erupts within them. – This is “the slave” in the blood of the vain,
a remnant of the mischief of the slave – and how much “slave” is still left
over in women, for instance! –, they try to seduce people into having good
opinions of them. By the same token, it is the slave who submits to these
opinions immediately afterwards, as if he were not the one who had just
called for them. – And to say it again: vanity is an atavism.
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A species 4 originates, a type grows sturdy and strong, in the long struggle
with essentially constant unfavorable conditions. Conversely, people know
from the experience of breeders that species with overabundant diets and,
in general, more than their share of protection and care, will immediately
show a striking tendency towards variations of the type, and will be rich in
wonders and monstrosities (including monstrous vices). You only need to
see an aristocratic community (such as Venice or an ancient Greek polis 5 )
as an organization that has been established, whether voluntarily or involuntarily,
for the sake of breeding: the people living there together are
self-reliant and want to see their species succeed, mainly because if they
do not succeed they run a horrible risk of being eradicated. Here there
are none of the advantages, excesses, and protections that are favorable
to variation. The species needs itself to be a species, to be something
that, by virtue of its very hardness, uniformity, and simplicity of form,
can succeed and make itself persevere in constant struggle with its neighbors
or with the oppressed who are or threaten to become rebellious. A
tremendous range of experiences teaches it which qualities are primarily
responsible for the fact that, despite all gods and men, it still exists, it
keeps prevailing. It calls these qualities virtues, and these are the only
virtues it fosters. It does so with harshness; in fact, it desires harshness.
Every aristocratic morality is intolerant about the education of the young,
disposal over women, marriage customs, relations between old and young
and penal laws (which only concern deviants): – it considers intolerance
itself to be a virtue, under the rubric of “justice.” A type whose traits
are few in number but very strong, a species of people who are strict,
warlike, clever, and silent, close to each other and closed up (which gives
4 In German: Art. In this section, Art is translated as “species” and Typus as “type.”
5 City-state.
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