Aristocratic Radical, 1886–1887

Abstract

Nietzsche’s ‘campaign against morality’ in its political dimension extends to the writings of 1886–87. In Beyond Good and Evil, the ‘critique of modernity’ that Nietzsche describes as his task includes ‘modern politics’,¹ and the ‘herd animal morality’ he analyses finds expression in ‘political and social arrangements’.² It is now more evident that he is increasingly critical of the Reich and its democratic concessions. In fact, his view in 1886 is that since its founding in 1871 the Reich has been making a progressive ‘transition … to a levelling mediocrity, democracy’.³ Democracy is declared to be a‘degenerating form of political organisation’,⁴ which makes men mediocre and reduces their value.