Sharp County record., 1918-06-14
tERMANY'S BARBAR0US POLICY
BUILT ON A FOUNDATION OF
MOST VICIOUS PHILOSOPHY
For Centuries the Worst that Emanated from
the Fertile Minds Of Men Of Evil Genius
Have Been Adopted for Base Of
the German Propaganda
Bv IOHN LEISK TAFT.

SOOu-tAhL IL plOuuCcu d'dilCo, lucS
murder, as well as industry and cour-
age. The high priest Of misanthropy,
he maintained that the evil outweighed
the good; and taught that true happi'
ness would be impossible until man
became able to kill Will with Will;
that is to say, until the Will to Live
was willed out of existence and man
reduced himself, voluntarily, to aseeti-
cism.
But asceticism held no attractions
for Nietssche. His was not the type
Of intellect that submits tamely to
prescription; and, while he readily &C
cepted Schopenhauer's premise Of the
viii to Live, he very quickl. diverged
from him as to the conclusions to be
drawn therefrom. He held, on the con-
trary, that true happiness, or at any
rate true heroism, lay in stiff-necked
indifference toward all "the ills that
flesh is heir to-" and particularly, in
the annexation Of whatsoever desir-
able things one could find, regardless
Of any others claims, or rights to
! them. His "Zarathustra," discoursing
! of the superman, exclaims:
why 30 soft, SO tender, so concili-
atory? Why is such self-denial in your
hearts? Such little consciousness Of
destiny in your look? This new table,
o my brethren. I write above you
BECOME HARD!"
There was but one logical develop
ment for man of Nietzsches type,
given such starting point. He be-
came the supreme egoist of all ages;
and in his blaring egotism crystallized
into definite and coherent propositions
all those errant and rebellious eccen-
tricities which had characterized Ger.
man thought. He gave to the Germanic
philosophy its full and final express
sion.
1t was thus that Germany found in
, Frederick Nietzsche the fitting
spokesman for all apostles OF brutal
ity. He became at once the heir and
the administrator Of all revolts against
delicacy and decency. He was COM
mitted, absolutely and wholehearted.
ly. to iconoclasm. These revolutionary
tendencies had long sheltered In the
shadows Of the German universities;
and It remained only for later days to
bring forth one who might declare
them "as one having authority" In
the half,mad, ego-ridden Nietzsche,
with his brain Of lava and his pen Of
fame, Germanic philosophy found Its
spokesman,
To other peoples Nietzsche was
merely a phenomenon. His writings
were to be read and admired for their
laundering and flaming rhetoric. They
we're not to be accepted literally; they
were too subversive Of all that civlllza-
tion stood for. No man, It was felt.
could 80 write OF these things and real
ly mean exactly what he wrote. A
legion OF reviewers swarmed over his
books, adapting, constituting, interpret.
Ing, each according to his own fancy,
the passionate fulminatlons Of this
past master OF invective.
But to Germany. or at least to the
leaders OF German thought, Nietzsche
spake as a prophet. In their ears his
soathIng doctrines became, not rhet
oric, but religion And his vision Of
the superman, ruthless, hard, taking
without scruple, injuring without
Qualm, a law unto hlmself--this was
the false god after which Germany
went avldly astray,
I'm our present civilized world" do.
clared Netzsche, I'VE know only the
DEGENERATE criminal .. the
criminal who distrusts himself, who
often seeks to belittle and excuse his
act; and we try to forget that EVERY
GREAT MAN WAS A CRIMINAL,
only not In miserable style, but In
great style, We forget that EVERY
GREAT ACT IS A CRIME"
And so we find our iconoelast, who
began with accepting sehopenhauers
harmless VIII to Live, evolving the
VIII TO Power, He no longer holds
merely that "selfpreservation Is ma.
ture's first law" he proclaims that II
Ia right and lawful tat he who can
shall take whatever be will-provldod
only that Il adds to- and does not do.
tract from his ability to take yet more
ruthlessly whatever his neighbor may
have that ploascs his sovereign fancy.
Niotzsehe had reached the point whcrc
he held himself above tho moral law
and reversed or tried to reverse, all
accepted standards OF right and
wrong,
Nor did ho cease with this, for tho
prophet, perforce, must Justify hla
. prophecy, In the closing chapter OF his
book, der Antl.Crrist," he scaled the
very summit OF blasphemous presump.
, tion and gave free and final rein to
,, his furious inveetive. Here he writes,
~ condemn Christianity. | bring
, ,ganst Il the most terrible OF acetsa.
. lions that ever an aeeuser put into
l. Il "a.