According to the passage, human herds are all of the following except
Areprehensible
Bobdurate
Cautocratic
Dself-perpetuating
Etransitory
Passage 4. Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil
(Translated by Helen Zimmern)
Inasmuch as in all ages, as long as mankind has existed, there have also been
human herds (family alliances, communities, tribes, peoples, states, churches), and
always a great number who obey in proportion to the small number who command—
in view, therefore, of the fact that obedience has been most practiced and
fostered among mankind hitherto, one may reasonably suppose that, generally
speaking, the need thereof is now innate in every one, as a kind of FORMAL
CONSCIENCE which gives the command “Th ou shalt unconditionally do something,
unconditionally refrain from something,” in short, “Th ou shalt.” Th is need
tries to satisfy itself and to fi ll its form with a content, according to its strength,
impatience, and eagerness, it at once seizes as an omnivorous appetite with little
selection, and accepts whatever is shouted into its ear by all sorts of commanders—
parents, teachers, laws, class prejudices, or public opinion. Th e extraordinary
limitation of human development, the hesitation, protractedness, frequent retrogression,
and turning thereof, is attributable to the fact that the herd-instinct of
obedience is transmitted best, and at the cost of the art of command. If one imagine
this instinct increasing to its greatest extent, commanders and independent
individuals will fi nally be lacking altogether, or they will suff er inwardly from a bad
conscience, and will have to impose a deception on themselves in the fi rst place in
order to be able to command just as if they also were only obeying. Th is condition
of things actually exists in Europe at present—I call it the moral hypocrisy of the
commanding class. Th ey know no other way of protecting themselves from their
bad conscience than by playing the role of executors of older and higher orders
(of predecessors, of the constitution, of justice, of the law, or of God himself), or
they even justify themselves by maxims from the current opinions of the herd, as
“fi rst servants of their people,” or “instruments of the public weal.” On the other
hand, the gregarious European man nowadays assumes an air as if he were the only
kind of man that is allowable, he glorifi es his qualities, such as public spirit, kindness,
deference, industry, temperance, modesty, indulgence, sympathy, by virtue of
which he is gentle, endurable, and useful to the herd, as the peculiarly human virtues.
In cases, however, where it is believed that the leader and bell-wether cannot
be dispensed with, attempt after attempt is made nowadays to replace commanders
by the summing together of clever gregarious men. All representative constitutions,
for example, are of this origin. In spite of all, what a blessing, what a deliverance
from a weight becoming unendurable, is the appearance of an absolute ruler for
these gregarious Europeans—of this fact the eff ect of the appearance of Napoleon
was the last great proof. Th e history of the infl uence of Napoleon is almost the history
of the higher happiness to which the entire century has attained in its worthiest
individuals and periods.
(Translated by Helen Zimmern)
Inasmuch as in all ages, as long as mankind has existed, there have also been
human herds (family alliances, communities, tribes, peoples, states, churches), and
always a great number who obey in proportion to the small number who command—
in view, therefore, of the fact that obedience has been most practiced and
fostered among mankind hitherto, one may reasonably suppose that, generally
speaking, the need thereof is now innate in every one, as a kind of FORMAL
CONSCIENCE which gives the command “Th ou shalt unconditionally do something,
unconditionally refrain from something,” in short, “Th ou shalt.” Th is need
tries to satisfy itself and to fi ll its form with a content, according to its strength,
impatience, and eagerness, it at once seizes as an omnivorous appetite with little
selection, and accepts whatever is shouted into its ear by all sorts of commanders—
parents, teachers, laws, class prejudices, or public opinion. Th e extraordinary
limitation of human development, the hesitation, protractedness, frequent retrogression,
and turning thereof, is attributable to the fact that the herd-instinct of
obedience is transmitted best, and at the cost of the art of command. If one imagine
this instinct increasing to its greatest extent, commanders and independent
individuals will fi nally be lacking altogether, or they will suff er inwardly from a bad
conscience, and will have to impose a deception on themselves in the fi rst place in
order to be able to command just as if they also were only obeying. Th is condition
of things actually exists in Europe at present—I call it the moral hypocrisy of the
commanding class. Th ey know no other way of protecting themselves from their
bad conscience than by playing the role of executors of older and higher orders
(of predecessors, of the constitution, of justice, of the law, or of God himself), or
they even justify themselves by maxims from the current opinions of the herd, as
“fi rst servants of their people,” or “instruments of the public weal.” On the other
hand, the gregarious European man nowadays assumes an air as if he were the only
kind of man that is allowable, he glorifi es his qualities, such as public spirit, kindness,
deference, industry, temperance, modesty, indulgence, sympathy, by virtue of
which he is gentle, endurable, and useful to the herd, as the peculiarly human virtues.
In cases, however, where it is believed that the leader and bell-wether cannot
be dispensed with, attempt after attempt is made nowadays to replace commanders
by the summing together of clever gregarious men. All representative constitutions,
for example, are of this origin. In spite of all, what a blessing, what a deliverance
from a weight becoming unendurable, is the appearance of an absolute ruler for
these gregarious Europeans—of this fact the eff ect of the appearance of Napoleon
was the last great proof. Th e history of the infl uence of Napoleon is almost the history
of the higher happiness to which the entire century has attained in its worthiest
individuals and periods.