Chapter 21 first new idol

Brothers, there are peoples and peoples elsewhere, but not here: we have only states. nation?what is this?Stretch out your ears!I will tell you how nations die. The state is the cruelest of cruel monsters.He lied cruelly; this is the lie that creeps out of his mouth: "I, the country, am the nation." This is a lie!Those who create peoples and set them up with a faith and a love are creators; thus they serve life. Those who lay traps for the majority, and call these traps States, are destroyers: they hang a knife and carnality over the nation. Wherever there are nations, the state does not exist.They loathe the state as an ominous person, as a crime against custom and law.

I give you this sign: each nation has its own peculiar language of good and evil: which their neighbors cannot understand.Every nation has made its language out of its customs and laws. But the state lies in every language of good and evil; all its words are lies: it steals everything. And everything about it is fake; it bites with stolen teeth.Its guts are also hypocritical. Mixture of languages ​​of good and evil: I give you this, for the sign of the nation.Verily, what this sign signifies is the will to die!Verily, it attracts the preachers of death! The world is full of superfluous people: for these superfluous people the state was invented!See how it absorbs extra people!how they were devoured, chewed and digested!

"There is nothing greater than me in the world: I am God's commanding finger."— The monster howled like this.Those who kneel down are not only short-sighted people! well!To you too, you great souls, it whispers its frightening lies!well!It guesses the rich hearts of these voluntary consumers! Verily, it has guessed you, you victors of the old God!Old battles wear you out, and now your weariness is cast upon new idols. It is looking for a man of heroes and honor to be its right hand, the new idol!It loves to bask in the sun of conscience—the cruel monster! It will give you anything if you will worship it, the new idol!

So it has bought your moral splendor and your haughty gaze. You will be used as bait to catch the extras!Yes, it invented a poisonous trick, a horse of death, jingling with the saddle of fame! Yes, it determined the death of many, a death that boasted itself as life: Verily, to the preacher of death, that is a great service! I recognize the state as the place where the good and the bad eat poison; the state as where the good and the wicked perish; Just look at these superfluous people!They steal the work of inventors and the treasures of wise men: they call this theft civilization. ——But everything that meets them turns into disease and disaster!

Just look at these superfluous people!They are always sick; they spit out their livers and call this a newspaper.They devour each other, but cannot digest each other. Just look at these superfluous people!The more they accumulate wealth, the poorer they become.They crave power, especially power and a lot of money, these incompetents! Watch them crawl!These nimble monkeys!They climbed each other, and in the deep pits of the earth, pushed each other. They all want to be near the throne: this is their madness,--it seems happy to sit there!In fact, it is often the clay that sits on the throne—and the throne is often in the clay.

I thought they were madmen, crawling monkeys and feverish ones.Their idol, the grim monster, is rotten; their idolaters are rotten. Brothers, are you willing to suffocate in the breath of their blood and in their lusts? Rather break the window and jump out! Avoid the stench!Stay away from the idolatry of superfluous people! Avoid the stench!Stay away from the smoke of these human sacrifices! Now, great souls can also find a free life on the earth.There are still many places where hermits can hide alone or in groups.There the breath of the silent sea blows. Great souls can also enjoy a free life.Verily, the less a man possesses, the less he is possessed: mild poverty is blessed!

Where the state disappears, the necessary people begin to exist; the singing of the necessary people, the unique melody, begins. Where the state has perished,--look, brothers!Don't you see the rainbow and the bridge of Superman? —— Thus spake Zarathustra.