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800 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1881
Today one can see moving into existence the culture of a society of which commerce is as much the soul as personal contest was with the ancient greeks and as war, victory, and justice were for the Romans. The man engaged in commerce understands how to appraise everything without having made it, and to appraise it according to the needs of the consumer, not according to his own needs; 鈥榳ho and how many will consume this?鈥� is his question of questions. This type of appraisal he then applies instinctively and all the time: he applies it to everything, and thus also to the productions of the arts and sciences, of thinkers, scholars, artists, statesmen, peoples and parties, of the entire age: in regard to everything that is made he inquires after supply and demand in order to determine the value of a thing in his own eyes. This becomes the character of an entire culture, thought through in the minutest and subtlest detail and imprinted in every will and every faculty: it is this of which you men of the coming century will and be proud: if the prophets of the commercial class are right to give it into your possesion! But I have little fate in these prophets. Credat Judaeus Apella鈥攊n the words of Horace. (3.175)
These young men lack neither character nor talent nor industry: but they have never been allowed time to choose a course for themselves; on the contrary, they have been accustomed from childhood onwards to being given a course by someone else. When they were mature enough to be 鈥榮ent off into the desert鈥�, something else was done鈥攖hey were employed, they were purloined from themselves, they were trained to being worn out daily and taught to regard this as a matter of duty鈥攁nd now they cannot do without it and would not have it otherwise. Only these poor beasts of burden must not be denied their 鈥榟olidays鈥欌€攁s they call this idleness-ideal of an overworked century in which one is for once allowed to laze about, and be idiotic and childish to one鈥檚 heart鈥檚 content. (3.178)
Political and economic affairs are not worthy of being the enforced concern of society鈥檚 most gifted spirits: such a wasteful use of the spirit is at bottom worse than having none at all. They are and remain domains for lesser heads, and others than lesser heads ought not to be in the service of these workshops: better for the machinery to fall to pieces again! But as things now stand with everybody believing he is obliged to know what is taking place here every day and neglecting his own work in order to be continually participating in it, the whole arrangement has become a great and ludicrous pice of insanity. The price being paid for 鈥榰niversal security鈥� is much too high: and the maddest thing it that what is being effected is the very opposite of universal security, a fact our lovely century is undertaking to demonstrate: as idf demonstration were needed! To make society safe against thieves and fireproof and endlessly amenable to every kind of trade and traffic, and to transform the state into a kind of providence in both the good and the bad sense鈥攖hese are lower, mediocre, and in no way indispensable goals which ought not to be pursued by any means of the highest instruments which in any way exist鈥攊nstruments which ought to be saved up for the highest and rarest objectives! Our age may talk about economy but it is in fact a squanderer: it squanders the most precious thing there is, the spirit. (3.179)
We are all of us not what we appear to be according to the conditions for which alone we have consciousness and words, and consequently praise and blame. We fail to recognise ourselves after these coarse outbursts which are known to ourselves alone, we draw conclusions from data where the exceptions prove stronger than the rules; we misinterpret ourselves in reading our own ego's pronouncements, which appeared to be so clear. But our opinion of ourselves, this so-called ego which we have arrived at by this wrong method, contributes henceforth to form our character and destiny.
Acting the Truth.鈥擬any a man is truthful, not because he would be ashamed to exhibit hypocritical feelings, but because he would not succeed very well in inducing others to believe in his hypocrisy. In a word, he has no confidence in his talent as an actor, and therefore prefers honestly to act the truth.
Hierarchy.鈥擣irst and foremost, there are the superficial thinkers, and secondly the profound thinkers鈥攕uch as dive into the depths of a thing,鈥攖hirdly, the thorough thinkers, who get to the bottom of a thing鈥攚hich is of much greater importance than merely diving into its depths,鈥攁nd, finally, those who leap head foremost into the marsh: though this must not be looked upon as indicating either depth or thoroughness! these are the lovers of obscurity.