Notes on Nietzsche 10: The Spoils of Religious Faith

By Sadhika on

Book V, We Fearless Ones, The Joyful Wisdom

“Among the Europeans of to-day there are not lacking those who may call themselves homeless ones in a way which is at once a distinction and an honour; it is by them that my secret wisdom and gaya scienza is expressly to be laid to heart. For their lot is hard, their hope uncertain; it is a clever feat to devise consolation for them. But what good does it do! We children of the future, how could we be at home in the present?”

It would be men of honour indeed, in Nietzsche’s view, who are not afraid to brush off the “fixed truths” that others pull into their embrace. While the mediocre men make homes out of the icy raft of rationality and futuristic thinking that floats aimlessly on the same sea of Chaos that engulfed the structures of meaning that Man’s reason tore down, the homeless ones would not hesitate to look at the ruins of the ransacked city in an attempt to stave off guilt and misery, and would rather contemplate the need for erecting new structures of meaning, so that mankind can once again come home.

“We are unfavourable to all ideals which could make us feel at home in this frail, broken-down, transition period; and as regards the "realities" thereof, we do not believe in their endurance. The ice which still carries us has become very thin: the thawing wind blows; we ourselves, the homeless ones, are an influence that breaks the ice, and the other all too thin "realities." We "preserve" nothing, nor would we return to any past age; we are not at all "liberal," we do not labour for "progress," we do not need first to stop our ears to the song of the market-place and the sirens of the future—their song of "equal rights," "free society," "no longer either lords or slaves," does not allure us!”

The homeless ones hack away with their pickaxes at the ice that carries us across the sea of Chaos because we must be uncomfortable enough in these comforts that we do not make homes of them. We must, if need be, fall into the sea itself, and gasp for air, lest we feel too entitled to this raft of ice we cling to. We have let our societies become overrun with gross over-simplifications like “equity” and “free society”, so much so, that we deemed ourselves deserving of reassigning what Nature distributed unequally. We are proud beneficiaries of privilege in the history of mankind, all of us, to be born at the time where we were dealt the best of cards, when we had the highest odds of survival by historical standards, and we talk of reshuffling after every hand, such that each player has the exact same cards. This, we feel, is our road to progress!

“We do not by any means think it desirable that the kingdom of righteousness and peace should be established on earth (because under any circumstances it would be the kingdom of the profoundest mediocrity and Chinaism); we rejoice in all men, who, like ourselves, love danger, war and adventure, who do not make compromises, nor let themselves be captured, conciliated and stunted; we count ourselves among the conquerors; we ponder over the need of a new order of things, even of a new slavery—for every strengthening and elevation of the type "man" also involves a new form of slavery.”

The homeless ones will assemble new hierarchies and place ultimate values at the pinnacle, so that humanity may have somewhere to strive towards. They will not participate in the mindless equalizing of persons and rejoice in the celebration of mediocrity, identicalness and safe spaces. Have we forgotten that Nature meant us to select, to discriminate, to love one more than the other, to differentiate between us and them? Do we equate ourselves with God himself, that all men seem equal in our eyes? 

“Is it not obvious that with all this we must feel ill at ease in an age which claims the honour of being the most humane, gentle and just that the sun has ever seen? What a pity that at the mere mention of these fine words, the thoughts at the back of our minds are all the more unpleasant, that we see therein only the expression—or the masquerade—of profound weakening, exhaustion, age, and declining power! What can it matter to us with what kind of tinsel an invalid decks out his weakness? He may parade it as his virtue; there is no doubt whatever that weakness makes people gentle, alas, so gentle, so just, so inoffensive, so "humane"!—The "religion of pity," to which people would like to persuade us—yes, we know sufficiently well the hysterical little men and women who need this religion at present as a cloak and adornment!”

Seeking to reorganize the world, we set about exercising undifferentiated sympathy, making virtues out of weakness and heroes out of victims. We made winners and losers equal, and eliminated the incentive for victory altogether. We railed against the rich with vitriolic hatred, and applauded poverty of all kinds, most of all, spiritual. The tamest of us all who dares not think lest it offend someone, was our ideal. And humanity, our religion!

“As such, we have also outgrown Christianity, and are disinclined to it—and just because we have grown out of it, because our forefathers were Christians uncompromising in their Christian integrity, who willingly sacrificed possessions and positions, blood and country, for the sake of their belief. We—do the same. For what, then? For our unbelief? For all sorts of unbelief? Nay, you know better than that, my friends! The hidden Yea in you is stronger than all the Nays and Perhapses, of which you and your age are sick; and when you are obliged to put out to sea, you emigrants, it is—once more a faith which urges you thereto!”

These lines bring out the nuance of Nietzsche’s views in the most brilliant ways. It is this playful toying with words that characterizes the pace of this entire book. Nietzsche begins by renouncing religious faith - he says we have “outgrown” Christianity, just because we have “grown out of it”. Consumed with rational thought, we forget with what difficulty our ancestors wrested each breath from Nature herself that we might stand tall in our arrogance on this day to mock and “disbelieve” what forgave their trespasses against her and delivered us to victory. Our culture, economic and legal systems, laws of ethics and egalitarian virtues grew out of the faith that we are eager to discard today, while we squabble among us (almost with religious madness) for the spoils as if we reached here to assume this sophisticated position, unassisted. 

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