The motives vary with the individual
rebels.
It must suffice, however, from among the many leaders of this
revolt, to quote that clever but unbalanced German iconoclast,
Nietzsche. Typical of his doctrine is the following: [Footnote:
Genealogy of Morals (ed. Alex. Tille), Foreword, p. 9.] "Never until
now was there the least doubt or hesitation to set down the 'good'
man as of higher value than the 'evil' man-of higher value in the
sense of furtherance, utility, prosperity, as regards MAN in general
(the future of man included). What if the reverse were true? What if
in, the 'good' one also a symptom of decline were contained, and a
danger, a seduction, a poison, a narcotic by which the present might
live AT THE EXPENSE OF THE FUTURE? Perhaps more comfortably, less
dangerously, but also in humbler style- more meanly? So that just
morality were to blame, if a HIGHEST MIGHTINESS AND SPLENDOR of type
of man-possible in itself were never attained? And that, therefore,
morality itself would be the danger of dangers?"
The point of this tirade is that morality puts a wet blanket over
human powers; it is a bourgeois ideal, saving men, indeed, from
pain, but also robbing life of its picturesqueness and glory. Many
people frankly prefer "interesting" to "good" people; Nietzsche
generalizes this feeling. Morality is to him uninteresting, dull, a
code for slaves, for the clash of combat, the tang of cruelty and
lust, the tingle of unrestrained power.
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