Beyond Good and Evil

In Beyond Good and Evil, Nietzsche discusses how he is not a believer in democracy. The principles of democracy were put together by levelers, or people that believe in democracy. These principles lead to equality that restrains life to one universal truth and Nietzsche did not agree with this idea at all. He believed that these principles caused people to form into one large herd. In this herd, people follow one another with no will to power, which results in the downfall of individual rights and instincts. This makes the herd the definition of morality in society, which Nietzsche disagrees with. But he brings up the idea of neighbor love. Neighbor love is the idea that we are all in one herd so we are all equal which creates us to all love our neighbor equally. This contradicts Nietzsche’s ideas that humans should be competitive and pursue their own interests, and not follow a herd because in reality, not everyone is equal or the same. Neighbor love is simply giving up the will to power over your neighbor and competition is no longer involved in society because of equality. The democratic principles are what all of these ideas are based off of.

Nietzsche has multiple problems with democracy. First of all, he believes in the pre-moral period. A monarchy, to him, is the best system that could be in place. It may not be equal, but someone has to have the will to power to run a successful society. Nietzsche states that with success, pain and struggle is necessary. Democracy creates sublimation to everyone because no individual is better than another. The idea of democracy is a negative side of equality in which people still “love truth” (40), but not the absolute truths because people are leveling off their knowledge and not iden...

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... of democracy and enforcing it. This is weakening societies individual abilities and will to power because the weaker society wants to impose what they believe to be as morality. The concept of the herd is simply the bringing the potential of an individual down to what society believes as right and wrong. Love of thy neighbor comes into play with the heard because everyone is equal; therefore, love is the only option. But this is false because it is not true love. The levelers are ignoring the historical perspective of morality and instead they justify their own morality with a narrow mind, ignorant to the days when society was run by will to power and success of the individual. Our own knowledge is what we make of it and if we are constricted by society we are making ourselves less intelligent and less successful.

Works Cited

Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil