Friedrich_Nietzsche - Untimely_Meditations_(Cambridge_Texts_in_the_History_of_Philosophy__1997)

Untimely Meditationsthings are precisely the most important things: because he does notunderstand these things, his understanding is more childish thanthe child and more simple than simplicity - and this in spite of themany cunning fo lds of his parchment scroll and the virtuosity of hisfingers in unravelling the entangled. The reason is that he has lostand destroyed his instincts and, having lost his trust in the 'divineanimal', he can no longer let go the reins when his reason falters andhis path leads him through deserts. Thus the individual growsfainthearted and unsure and dares no longer believe in himself: hesinks into his own interior depths, which here means into theaccumulated lumber of what he has learned but which has no outwardeffect, of instruction which does not become life. If onewatches him from outside, one sees how the expulsion of theinstincts by history has transformed man almost into mere abstractisand shadows: no one dares to appear as he is, but masks himself as acultivated man, as a scholar, as a poet, as a politician. If, believing allthis to be in earnest and not a mere puppet-play - for they all affectearnestness - one takes hold of these rtlaks, one suddenly has nothingbut rags and tatters in one's hands. That is why one should no longerlet oneself be deceived, that is why one should order them: 'Off withyour coats or be what you seem!' It can no longer be borne thateveryone of a noble seriousness should become a Don Qu ixote:since he has better things to do than to buffe t about with such fal serealities. But he must nonetheless keep a sharp lookout, whenever heencounters a mask cry his 'Halt! Who goes there?' and tear the.maskfrom its face. Strange! One would think that history wouldencourage men to be honest - even if only honest fools; and hithertothis has indeed been its effect, only now it is no longer! Historicaleducation and the identical bourgeois coat rule at the same time.While the 'free personality' has never before been commended sovolubly, there are no personalities to be seen, let alone free personalitiesnothing but anxiously muffled up identical people.Individuality has withdrawn within: from without it has becomeinvisible; a fact which leads one to ask whether indeed there could becauses without effects. Or is a race of eunuchs needed to watch overthe great historical world-harem? Pure objectivity would certainlycharacterize such a race. For it almost seems that the task is to standguard over history to see that nothing comes out of it except morehistory, and certainly no real events! - to take care that history doesnot make any personality 'free', that is to say truthful towards itself,truthful towards others, in both word and deed. It is only through84