Friedrich_Nietzsche - Untimely_Meditations_(Cambridge_Texts_in_the_History_of_Philosophy__1997)

David Strauss, the confessor and the writer7Our philistine chieftain is indeed brave with words to the point ofrashness whenever he believes he will give delight to his noble 'we'through such bravery. Thus, the asceticism and self-abnegation ofthe saints and hermits of old may count as a form of Kalzenjarnmer,Jesus may be described as a visionary who would in our day hardlyescape the madhouse, the story of the resurrection may be called a'piece of world-historical humbug' - let us for once let all this pass,so that we may study the singular courage of which Strauss, our'classic philistine', is capable.Let us first hear his confession: 'To tell the world what it leastwants to hear is, to be sure, a displeasing and thankless office. It likesto live unstintingly, like a great lord, it receives and pays out for aslong as it has anything to pay with: but when someone comes alongto reckon up the items and hands it the bill, it regards him as amischief- maker. And precisely that is what my head and heart havealways impelled me to do.' Such a head and heart may well be calledcourageous, yet it remains doubtful whether this courage is naturaland original, or whether it is not rather acquired and artificial;perhaps Strauss accustomed himself to being a mischief-maker byprofession only gradually, until he had acquired from this professionthe courage for it. That would accord very well with naturalcowardice, such as is proper to the philistine: it reveals itselfespecially in the inconsequentiaiity of those assertions which it takescourage to make; there is the sound of thunder, but there follows noclearing of the air. He cannot manage an aggressive act, onlyaggressive words, but he chooses the most offensive words he canfind and exhausts all his force and energy in uncouth and blusteringexpressions: when his words have died away he is more cowardlythan he who has never spoken. Even the phantom form of actions,ethics, reveals that he is a hero only of words, and that he avoidsevery occasion on which it is necessary to proceed from words togrim earnest. He announces with admirable frankness that he is nolonger a Christian, but he does not wish to disturb anyone's peace ofmind; it seems to him contradictory to found an association in orderto overthrow an association - which is in fact not so very contradictory.With a cenain rude contentment he covers himselfin the hairycloak of our ape-genealogists and praises Darwin as one of thegreatest benefactors of mankind - but it confuses us to see that hisethics are constructed entirely independently of the question: 'Whatis our conception of the world?' Here was an opportunity to exhibit29