Chapter 22 The first market fly

Flee, friend, to your solitude!I see that you are dazzled by the noise of great men, and wounded by the pricks of small ones. Forest and rock know that solemn silence is with you.Learn again the long-armed tree you love: silently it bends over the sea and listens. The market begins where solitude ceases; where the market begins, so does the tumult of great actors and the camp of poisonous flies. Even the greatest good in the world is not valued without its performers; and the crowd honors these performers as great men. The fact that the masses do not understand greatness means that they do not understand creativity.But they have a great appreciation for the performers and actors of all great enterprises.

The world revolves around the inventor of new values: -- it revolves invisible.People and honor revolve around actors: so the world goes. Actors also have spirit, but they don't have the self-awareness of spirit.He believed in everything that got him the best results—and in everything that made others believe in him! Tomorrow he will have a new faith, and the day after tomorrow a renewed faith.Like the crowd, he is keen in perception and unstable in temperament. Turning truth upside down—this is what he calls proof.Dazzling,—that's what he calls persuasion.He considered blood to be the strongest of all arguments.

A truth, if it can only be appealed to the ear quietly, is a lie and empty words to him.Really, he only believes in God who makes a lot of noise in the world! The marketplace is full of buffoons who look like they're serious, -- and the crowd is dazzled by these big men: they see them as the masters of the day. But time is pressing on them: so they are pressing on you.They want you to say yes or no.well!Do you want to put your chair between the two? O lover of truth, do not envy these absolute and busy ones!Truth has never held the arm of the Absolute. Get away from these clamoring ones, and go back to your safety: only in the marketplace is one bound by Yes and No.

Shen Jing's recognition is very slow: Shen Jing has to wait for a long time before he knows what is falling below. All great things always happen far away from the market and honor: the inventor of new value always lives far away from the market and honor. Flee, friend, into your solitude: I see that your whole body is ravaged by poisonous flies.Flee to where the violent wind blows! Flee to your solitude!Your life is too close to gadgets and wretches.Flee before their invisible vengeance!They just want revenge on you. Do not reach out to resist them!They outnumber the sands of the Ganges, and your fate is not the swatter.

These trinkets and wretches are innumerable; many towering mansions have been toppled by raindrops and bad weeds. You are not a rock, yet many raindrops have dripped through you.Many more raindrops will cut you apart and crush you. I see that you are weary with poisonous flies; you are bleeding in many places; yet pride makes you disdain anger. They thirst for your blood without scruple; that is what their anemic souls need, - they sting without scruple. But you are deep, even a slight injury can cause you severe pain; and before you are healed, these poisons climbed onto your hands again.

I know you are too proud to kill these gluttons.But take care; don't let you be doomed to bear all their malice! They surround you with praises: their praises are but annoyance to you.They want to be close to your skin and blood. They flatter you as they flatter a god or a devil; they weep to you as to a god or a devil.How boring!They are sycophants and weepers, and nothing else. They are always kind to you.But this is the wisdom of the cowardly.yes!Cowards are witty! They think about you with narrow souls—they think you are always suspicious!Anything that makes one think twice is always suspicious.

They punish you for all your morals.In the depths of their hearts, they only want to forgive - your mistakes. Thy kindness and integrity make you say, "They are innocent of their mean existence." But their small souls think, "All great existence is guilty." Though you are kind to them, they feel that you despise them; they reward your kindness with secret evil. Your silent haughtiness always offends them: they love it when you happen to be humble enough to be frivolous. We see something in a person, and at the same time we set that thing ablaze in that person.So stay away from villains!

They are in front of you, feeling small, and their baseness burns into invisible vengeance for defying you. Don't you think they fall silent when you approach them?Do you not see that their strength forsakes them like smoke from a dying fire? Yea, friend, you call upon the consciences of your neighbors: for they are not worthy of you.So they hate you and want to suck your blood. Thy neighbors are ever poisonous flies; thy greatness--it shall make them more poisonous, more like flies. Flee, friend, to your solitude!Flee to the solitude where the violent wind blows!Your destiny is not a swatter. ——

Thus spake Zarathustra.