This Nietzsche quote is currently popular…
This Nietzsche quote is currently popular on Nostr, so I did a quick resarch about the meaning of the quote.
Besides Nietzsche being known as political thinker, he mentioned the state only three times in his work, two times famously negative and surprisingly one time quite positive (translated with Google, as I couldn't find the text passage in English):
"The state, of ignominious birth, a perpetual flowing source of toil for most men, at frequent periods the consuming torch of the human race--yet a sound that makes us forget ourselves, a battle-cry that inspires innumerable deeds of true heroism has, perhaps the highest and most venerable object for the blind and egotistical masses, who have the strange expression of greatness on their faces even in the monstrous moments of state life!«
So, it turns out Nietzsche had an ambivalent attitude towards the state. I think, as always the complexity of the world is not black and white only ☯️
Source (German language):
