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The three essays which constitute this genealogy are as regards expression, aim and the art of the unexpected perhaps the most curious things that have ever been written. Dionysus as you know is also the god of darkness. In each case the beginning is calculated to mislead, it is cool, scientific, even ironic, intentionally superficial and intentionally reticent. Gradually the coolness grows less; here and there a flash of lightning illuminates the horizon; exceedingly unpleasant truths break upon your ears from out of remote distances with a dull rumbling sound—until very soon a fierce tempo is attained in which everything presses forward with tremendous tension. At the end, in each case, amid fearful thunderclaps a new truth shines out from between heavy clouds. The truth of the first essay is the psychology of Christianity: the birth of Christianity out of the spirit of resentment, not as is supposed out of the "Spirit”—in all its essentials a counter movement, the great insurrection against the rule of noble values. The second essay contains the psychology of conscience: this is not as you may believe "the voice of God in man”; it is the instinct of cruelty which turns inwards once it is unable to discharge itself outwardly. Cruelty is here exposed for the first time as one of the oldest and most indispensable elements in the foundation of culture. The third essay answers the question as to the origin of the formidable power of the ascetic ideal, of the priest ideal, despite the fact that this ideal is essentially detrimental, that it is a will to nonentity and to decadence. Answer: it flourished not because God was active behind the priests as is generally believed but because it was faute de mieux—because hitherto it has been the only ideal and has had no competitors. "For man prefers to aspire to nonentity than not to will at all”. But above all, until the time of Zarathustra there was no counter ideal. You have understood my meaning. Three decisive sketches of a psychologist for a Revaluation of all Values. This book contains the first psychology of the priest.
The three essays which constitute this genealogy are as regards expression, aim and the art of the unexpected perhaps the most curious things that have ever been written. Dionysus as you know is also the god of darkness. In each case the beginning is calculated to mislead, it is cool, scientific, even ironic, intentionally superficial and intentionally reticent. Gradually the coolness grows less; here and there a flash of lightning illuminates the horizon; exceedingly unpleasant truths break upon your ears from out of remote distances with a dull rumbling sound—until very soon a fierce tempo is attained in which everything presses forward with tremendous tension. At the end, in each case, amid fearful thunderclaps a new truth shines out from between heavy clouds. The truth of the first essay is the psychology of Christianity: the birth of Christianity out of the spirit of resentment, not as is supposed out of the "Spirit”—in all its essentials a counter movement, the great insurrection against the rule of noble values. The second essay contains the psychology of conscience: this is not as you may believe "the voice of God in man”; it is the instinct of cruelty which turns inwards once it is unable to discharge itself outwardly. Cruelty is here exposed for the first time as one of the oldest and most indispensable elements in the foundation of culture. The third essay answers the question as to the origin of the formidable power of the ascetic ideal, of the priest ideal, despite the fact that this ideal is essentially detrimental, that it is a will to nonentity and to decadence. Answer: it flourished not because God was active behind the priests as is generally believed but because it was faute de mieux—because hitherto it has been the only ideal and has had no competitors. "For man prefers to aspire to nonentity than not to will at all”. But above all, until the time of Zarathustra there was no counter ideal. You have understood my meaning. Three decisive sketches of a psychologist for a Revaluation of all Values. This book contains the first psychology of the priest.
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