GUIDE TO THE PHILOSOPHY 1938 - 1947.pdf - Rare Books at ...

632 ETHICS AND POLITICS: THE MODERNS
The Ethics of Power. So far I have summarized
only the negative side pf Nietzsche's doctrine, and told
the tale of his repudiations. These, as I have already
hinted, are remarkable less for their novelty than for their
doctrine that Nietzsche's
vigour. It is in his positive
contribution to ethics, and in particular to fascist ethics,
consists. What is it, he asks, that the herd chiefly fears,
and answers, "the lofty, independent spirituality, die will
to stand alone, and even the cogent reason". Why is it
that these qualities are an object of fear? Because they
confer an advantage upon their possessor in the struggle
for life, and are, therefore, evidence of the superiority
of those who possess them. Nietzsche's thought was strongly
influenced by the Darwinian concepts of Natural Selection
and the struggle for existence. Darwin announced that
the fittest survive; Nietzsche moralized the announcement
by adding that the fittest aught to survive. In other words,
he sought to derive the principles of morality from the
facts of evolution. A morality based on evolutionary
concepts will assert, in the first place, that good is that
which furthers, evil that which hinders, the evolutionary
process. But the evolutionary process, as it manifests itself
in the human race, does not take place only, or even mainly
on the physical plane. In man, as in all beings, life is
striving to evolve a higher type, but higher in respect of
its moral and spiritual, not predominantly in respect of
its physical qualities. By what marks are moral and
spiritual superiority to be recognized? By the will of the
morally and spiritually superior person to exercise power
over bis fellows. Everywhere, Nietzsche points out, the
higher type dominates, or seeks to dominate, the lower;
everywhere the lower seeks to defend itself against domination.
In politics its defence takes the form of democracy,
enables the
which, announcing the great dogma ofequality, masses of the mediocre to make their numbers felt by
the counting of heads and the casting of votes; in ethics,
the lower clothe themselves in the Christian virtues ofmeekness,
pity and nnsdfishnois,. and the mediocre erect a