A New Star---Frederich Nietzsche.

Maoriland Worker, Volume 2, Issue 26, 1 September 1911, Page 4

A New Star ---Frederich Nietzsche.

"E¥ERY LSTTLE WHILE ,, .BOOK STUDY-

By W.R.W.

' (Concluded.) Nietzsche's Teaching. Nietzsche, like Malthus, believed in a system of aristocracy and slavery, under which the wealthy and successful were to shut out front their hearts all sympathy with humanitarian move ments, while the slaves were to be kept in ignorant content .by teaching them Christianity, which he held to be essentially the religion of the "meek," the "lowly/ 5 the "humble and enslaved." In Aphorism 75 ("Dawn of Day") he says: "There is something Oriental and feminine in Christianity, and this is shewn in the thought, "Whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth," for women in the Orient consider castigations and the strict seclusion of their person from the world, as a sign it their husband's- love, and complain if these sigrs of love .-0...5 c." It was as a religion fit for slaves that Nietzschrecom men-do d Christ. Lan ity to the wealthy aristocrats who should go on their way heedless of the sufferings of those whom they exploited. He says in his political notes, "As onlookers we deceive ourselves in regard to tnt. sufferings of tlie lower classes, for we involuntarily set- up our own feelings as a standard, as if we with our own brains, which are so excitable and capable of suffering, were in place of such people. As a matter of fact, the sufferings and privations increase with the increase of culture of the individual ; the lower orders are the ni.sistupid; to better their lot is simply to render them more capable of suffermg." There is no suggestion of truth for truth's sake in this. It is the old familiar aristocratic doctrine that the masses are better as they are. Better not tell them the truth, because they would only be made unhappy and capable of feeling more suffering. The truth is a fearful thing when the people are not prepared for it, because you do not quite know what they will do when they know it. Remember the Frencn. Revolution. Perhaps, after all, the religious lie is a better thing for thero than the truth would be, for they cannot be trusted. We have no faith in mankind. We knew the whole thing is untrue, but it is so useful for the people. As Burns said: "The fear o' hell's a hangman's whip To haud'the wretch in order." You don't know what harm you might do by shaking their faith in it. Socialism and Truth. Socialists refuse to accept and adopt this view, and they aro far keener searchers after truth than are the followers of Nietzsche,"or than was their master himself. Crooked ways are none the less crooked because they are meant to deceive great masses of people instead of individuals. If a thing is true,, let us all believe it, rich and poor, men, women and children. If a thing is untrue, let us all disbelieve it. Truth is a thing to be shouted from the housetops,not to be whispered after dinner, amidst the smoke of* cigars, when the ladies are gone away. We cannot believe that any falsehood whatever is necessary to morality or progress. It cannot be true that to keep ourselves from becoming scoundrels we must needs believe a lie. The sense of right grows only amongst healthy men, and is fixed by the practice of comradeship. It has never had any help from falsehoods aud phantoms, and it never can need any. By faith in mankind, and in truth, we have taught each other the right of old, and this faith will serve t_s best in the future. A Nt-tzschean Expounder. One of Nietzsche's translations and expounders (Kennedy: "The Quintessence . of Socialism I ) says: "The Church of England despises the masses inwardly, and very often outwardly, but it nevertheless has an outlet fur its energies. Where? Among the aristocratic classes; among the members of that caste peculiar to England, the 'gentlemen/ It is to the English High Church party, represented in. politics by the House of Lords and the Conservative members, that we must look to tako up the study of Nietzsche and the propagation of his doctrines throughout the Empire. I would lay special emphasis on what is generally recognised as an important fact, the Church, politics and tlie Empire itself have reached a critical point in our history. The 'hush' which a cultured statesman recently referred to, may be the prelude to a fierce world-struggle when the older European nations, under the infiuence_ of Socialistic and democratic opinion, have sunk into a state of humanitarian torpor, and the united younger racos, in whose land Nietzsche was

bora, began, (as they hay« done) t. put forth the crudest side of their masters' teaching into practice. Ideals sought by Mr. Masterman and tho 'New Way of Life,' recommended by Mr. St. Leo Strachey, cannot be found, need I say it? in out-of-dati, superstition, in reliance upon a higher po\ver (for though a higher power, let it be called God or Nature, exists in some form, it does not come to our conscience in a miraculous fashion;, nor yet can they be found in universal suffrage, state - nationalisation of everything, votes for women, nor aJiy of the other means recommended in the hoarse Socialistic claptrap shouted from thousands of inverted soap-boxes and Clarion vans; they can only be found in the thorough grasp of the writings of one of tho greatest philosophical geniuses that ever lived — Fredejich Nietzsche." "To Nietzsche then, the philosopher of intellectual and physical aristocracy, we must turn. The future allows no room for what is somewhat ineptly called 'Liberalism. 5 We must now be governed either by the cultured aristocratic few, or by the uncouth, boorish, democratic Socialistic many. And it will be born in mind that the uncultured cannot be changed into the cultured merely by going through a courso of board school education." , The Masses' Opponent. It is to Nietzsche, then, that the dominant classes of Great Britain must look for salvation, and the masses their next opponent. The tide of Socialism can only be met with a flood of Nietzsche's aphorisms against every "kind of sympathy, humanitarism or conscience. Under cover of a b-ugus- call for efficiency, granite will, self-reliance, physical and menta. strength, and other alleged Roman qualities, the British Empire is to go on as it is, for Mr. Mugge says the English are Nietzseheans without knowing it —Nietzseheans because of themselves. "Scarcely any nation except the English already lives up to the better part of Nietzsche's pliilosophy. The grani.-. will, self-reliance, physical and mental strength and power—Nietzsche demands these Roman qualities * and are they not the secret of England's success?" Yet in spite of her "Reman qualities" and her "success/ Do ye hear the children weeping, O my brothers, Ere the sorrow comes with years? They are leaning their young heads against their mothers, And that cannot stop, their tears. The young lambs are bleating in the. meadow,-., The young birds are chirping in the nest, The young fawns are playing with the shadows, Tlie young flowers are_ blowing towards/ the west. But the yonng, young children, O my brothers, They are weeping bitterly! They are weeping in the playtime of the others. In the country of the free. But, of course, that is only the language of emotion and sentiment, and the obvious reply of the English Nietzsohean will be: "Let them weep." It is. necessary that the physically and mentally strong should leave them to their fate. The struggle for existence is so necessary to produce mental and physical strength—the superman, progress, aud all the delights of our civilisation. Putting it plainly. That is to say, in plain terms, that widespread destitution and an incalculable amount of preventible suffering and disease must exist that an aristocracy supposed to be physically and mentally strong should be maintained to rule the nation and the Empire The superman, according to this theory, can only be born of unhealthy conditions and a vast amount of human suffering. He is te arise from a sor. of social dismal swamp composed of the flesh and blood of fallen, weaker brethren. To tell the lower classes the truth, to enlighten them, would be fatal. It would only increase their capacity for suffering. The triumph of truth, then, would be fatal to progress, and t__e birth of the superman. To a social system founded upon truth and justice, the superman could not come. He could only come where the "granite will," and "self-reliance" of the aristocratic exploiter has free scope. It is quite true that the English are Nietzscheans without knowing it, or at least their rulers are. The English exploiter goes on his way minus sympathy, sentiment, or imagination, and as a result the na-

tion drifts rapidly towards extinction. The countryman is driven from th© land into the cities, and the average townsman of the second generation lacks character, grit, endurance and some ©ther Roman qualities which he prides himself in having above all other men. In England Now. The worst thing is happening to England in tlie loss of her enterprising and vigorous workers, who are leaving for foreign lands in such numbers that Mr. John Burns lately felt impelled to a*sk the oversea dominions not to "empty the. tank." Those who are not leaving are being starved into the.. towns., are starved when they get there. Meanwhile, the exploiter cultivates his granite will until he can regard the general decline with unconcern. From her breeding stock Great Britain is' steadily eliminating her best and conserving her worst. General Sir F. Maurice said recently that 60 per cent, of the men who wish to become soldiers are physically unfit for service, and the bulk of the rejections is due to stunted growth. The minimum standard of height has been steadily lowered since 1845 ,bufc there has ■ been no decrease in the proportionate total of rejections. The rejects being unfit "food for powder"' tvhat are they fit for? And the Nietzschean replies, "They must breed our future workers." Miich, if net most, of the deterioration can be accounted for. It is estimated that of the 77 per cent, of population- that lives in towns, some 25 per cent, live in such poverty that, they are utterly unable, to rear healthy children. In London, 400,000 live in. one-roomed tenements, and 40 3 000 live five in a room. In spite of the disastrous conditions in the cities, country populations are rushing thither. In 1881 the ratio ot town to country population was 212 to 100, in 1901 it was 335 to 100. In "England and Wales the peptization has aboiit doubled during the last fifty years, while the number of peoEle employed in agriculture has about alved. "We have," says-Mr. Lloyd George,, "drawn .upon the robust vitality or our rural areas, and spent its energies recklessly in the devitalising atmosphere of factories and workshops, as if the supply were inexhaustible. We are now beginning to realise that we have been spending our capital and at a disastrous rate." And while all this has been doing, the country has been under the sway of "that caste peculiar to England, the gentlemen/ with the "Roman 'qualities'" so much admired by Nietzscheans. The country has been,governed and educated by this caste, and it has taught the masses its own' history, morals, religion,, and economics (all of which are lies), and we can see the dire result.-* This caste controls; the schools, "universities, churches, parliaments, and press, and it sees to it that the truth reaches the masses only in very small doses "considerably adulterated withlies. That which tells in favour of monarchy, aristocracy, and the High Church, is shouted from the housetops, while truth is kept at the bottom of the well. The Word to fee done. The Nietzscheans know all this,; and hope for its continuance,, and they rightly regard the caste most benefitted as the most likely to take up the study and teaching of their master. Not that Nietzsche cannot be quoted often against that caste, and in favour of the utmost freedom, for he has written many thing 3 both beautiful and true, but they are so interwoven and submerged by what is fatal to truth, and justice as to be useless. * He is for the "gentlemen" of the High Ohurch and the Conservative party, their hope against Socialism. ' His .system is to be taken to the masses, and siLggested to them as the true line of progress. They are still to be governed by suggestion. The priests of tbe High Church and the dominant exploiting caste will say, "Behold the eclipse of the sun. You know that it is only an eclipse, but you must know that a new star - —rFrederich Nietzsche —is the cause." And" this- will be attempted to keep tho masses where the Egyptian priests kept them—in ignorance of economic truth and subject to barefaced robbery. It will be for Socialist's to tell tlie masses the truth.