Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 2.djvu/808

 THE PRESENT STATUS OF SOCIOLOGY IN

GERMANY. III.

IV.

A SIGN of the relation between socialism and individualism appears in the fact that wherever the former is found, the latter immediately shows itself in force. In Germany, where social- ism is advancing toward victory, individualistic tendencies of every sort are more and more vigorous. Fifty years ago, when socialism was not so strong, and had less place in the conscious- ness of the population, Max Stirner's powerful book, Der Ein- zige und sein Eigenthum attracted little notice. On the other hand Friedrich Nietzsche has given our own time a violent electric shock. His ideas, much more subtile than Stirner's, quickly appeared in all branches of literature. Our polite letters are full of "blonde beasts," and in social thought individualism again raises its hand obstinately and with confidence of success.

Nietzsche has revived Stirner, and in him he contends with a whole series of social theorems. First anarchy. Nietzsche's own philosophy is neither socialistic nor anarchistic. He knows only the strong, sovereign, self-contained individual. The masses, for whom social philosophy is usually concerned, are for Nietzsche the "much-too-many." They are for the amusement and serv- ice of the "superior man" (Uebermenscli) "beyond that let them go to the devil and statistics." His "superior men" are ends unto themselves, not for the "guidance" of the masses. He has no place for an institutionalized aristocracy. Whoever has subdued man so as to become a " superior man" is an aristo- crat, and he does not trouble himself about the worm beneath.

No more does Nietzsche teach anarchism in the social sense. On the contrary, his "superior men," his "blonde beasts," are the most rigorous despots. For them alone, the select, there is no law, because they stand above the law. For the masses

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