condemning of necessity so modest a thing as a "strike."[1] At the same time he has an ideal for the laborer that may seem an extravagance—at least it is not one frequently illustrated to him by his employer, though in a different and better civilization it might hold for employer and workingman alike. At present he finds men in civilized lands much the same in one respect: they work for the sake of the reward. An occupation is a means to them, not an end, so that they are not fine in choosing one, provided it yields a rich return: individuals are rare who must do just one kind of work and would rather perish than labor at something in which they have no pleasure.[2] He indicates his ideal in the following: "Laborers [and he would have said the same, I think, of all the subdivisions of his third class, employers and professional men included] should learn to feel like soldiers. An honorarium, a salary, but no pay! No proportion between payment and work performed! But each kind of individual to be so placed, that he can render the highest that is within his reach."[3]
And this suggestion of higher than egoistic ideals for the working classes goes along with the scheme of an ordered society in general. What Herbert Spencer called the "coming slavery" is in some respects what Nietzsche regarded as the normal state for the third social class. As unreasonable as it would be for single members of man's physical organism to seek their own aggrandizement, to be bent on being their own masters and becoming something for themselves, so pari passu for the lower orders of society. They are necessary, they should prosper, but they should not rule. Ruling belongs to the higher spheres in the individual organism, and to the first and second of Nietzsche's classes in society. It is absolutely necessary that the highest intelligence give direction to economic activity.[4] Here is the reason for his opposition to democracy in any form.
- ↑ As matter of fact he contemplates the possibility that an oppressed and enslaved population might rise and rule and lay the foundations of a new culture (Werke, XIV, 69-70). I do not remember any development of this thought, though perhaps Werke, XIII, 212-3, § 497, has something similar in view. It is a different thought from that of the migration of the workingmen contemplated in Dawn of Day, § 206 (see ante, p. 135).
- ↑ Joyful Science, § 42.
- ↑ Will to Power, § 763.
- ↑ Werke, XII, 204, § 435.
