Friedrich_Nietzsche - Untimely_Meditations_(Cambridge_Texts_in_the_History_of_Philosophy__1997)

On the uses and disadvantages . of history fo r lifeand greed, falls apart and ceases to be a people; in its place systemsof individualist egoism, brotherhoods for the rapaciousexploitation of the non-brothers, and similar creations of utilitarianvulgarity may perhaps appear in the arena of the fu ture. To preparethe way fo r these creations all one has to do is to go on writing historyfr om the standpoint of the masses and seeking to derive the lawswhich govern it from the needs of these masses, that is to say fr omthe'laws which move the lowest mud- and clay-strata of society. Themasses seem to me to deserve notice in three respects only: first asfaded copies of great men produced on poor paper with worn-outplates, then as a force of resistance to great men, finally as instrumentsin the hands of great men; for the rest, let the Devil and statistics takethem! What, can statistics prove that there are laws in history? Laws?They certainly prove how vulgar and nauseatingly uniform the massesare: but are the effects of inertia, stupidity, mimicry, love and hungerto be called laws? Well, let us suppose they are: that, however, onlygoes to confirm the proposition that so far as there are ls in historythe laws are worthless and the history is also worthless. But the kindof history at present universally prized is precisely the kind that takesthe great mass-drives for the chief and weightiest facts of history andregards great men as being no more than their clearest expression,as it were bubbles visible on the surface of the flood. Greatness is,under this supposition, the product of the masses, which is to sayorder is the product of chaos; and it is only natural that in the end thehymn of praise is sung to the masses that produce it. That which hasmoved these masses fo r any length of time and has become what iscalled 'a power in history' is then accorded the name 'great' . But isthat not a quite deliberate confusion of quantity with quality? Whenthe rude masses have found some idea or other, a religious idea fo rinstance, to their liking, strenuously defended it and dragged italong with them for centuries, then and only then is the inventor andfounder of this idea to be called great. But why! The noblest andmost exalted things make no effect whatever on the masses; the historicalsuccess of Christianity, its power in history, its tenacity anddurability, happily proves nothing with respect to the greatness of itsfo under, for if it did it would be evidence against him: between himand that historical success there lies a very dark and earthy stratum ofpassion, error, thirst for power and honour, of the continuingstrength of the imperium romanum, a stratum from which Christianityacquired the earthly residue and taste which made possible its continuancein this world and bestowed upon it as it were its tenability.Greatness ought not to depend on success: Demosthenes possessed