Autor: Scheler, Max

Buch: Ressentiment

Titel: Ressentiment

Stichwort: Humanitarismus 3; Menschenliebe als Protest gegen Minderheiten mit Werten u. Hass auf Gott (nicht als Bestätigung eines positiven Wertes); Scheinform d. Gotteshasses;

Kurzinhalt: The humanitarian movement is in its essence a ressentiment phenomenon, as appears from the very fact that this socio-historical emotion is by no means based on a spontaneous and original affirmation of a positive value, but on a protest, a counter-impulse

Textausschnitt: 98a [85] Friedrich Nietzsche lived in a period when precisely these extreme formulations and products of "Modern humanitarianism" were gaining consideration and applause. This explains his struggle against the whole movement. (Fs)

98b For in our opinion he is right in interpreting this idea, and especially the way in which it developed in the modern social movement -- but not the Christian idea of love! -- as a historical accumulation of ressentiment, growing through tradition. He rightly sees in it a symptom and expression of descending life. The humanitarian movement is in its essence a ressentiment phenomenon, as appears from the very fact that this socio-historical emotion is by no means based on a spontaneous and original affirmation of a positive value, but on a protest, a counter-impulse (hatred, envy, revenge, etc.) against ruling minorities that are known to be in the possession of positive values. "Mankind" is not the immediate object of love (it cannot be, for love can be aroused only by concrete objects) -- it is merely a trump card against a hated thing. Above all, this love of mankind is the expression of a repressed rejection, of a counter-impulse against God.1 It is the disguised form of a repressed hatred of God. Again and again it proclaims that there is "not enough love in the world" for wasting it on non-human beings -- a typical ressentiment statement. Bitterness against the idea of the highest lord, inability to bear the "all-seeing eye," impulses of revolt against "God" as the symbolic unity and concentration of all positive values and their rightful domination -- all these are primary components of humanitarian love. "Lovingly" stooping to man as a natural being -- that is the second step! Man is loved because his pain, his ills and sufferings in themselves form a gladly accepted objection against God's wise and benevolent rule." Wherever I find historical evidence of this feeling, I also detect a secret satisfaction that the divine rule can be impugned.2 Since the positive values are anchored in the idea of God through the power of tradition -- a tradition even non-believers cannot escape -- it inevitably follows that this "humanitarian love," based as it is on protest and rejection, becomes primarily directed at the lowest, the animal aspects of human nature. These, after all, are the qualities which "all" men dearly have in common. This tendency is still unmistakable in the terms we use to point out a person's "humanity." We rarely do this when he has done something good and reasonable, or something which distinguishes him -- usually we want to defend him against a reproach or an accusation: "He is only human," "We are all human," "To err is human," etc. This emotional tendency is typical for modern humanitarianism. A man who is nothing and has nothing is still a "human being." The very fact that love is directed at the species implies that it is essentially concerned with the inferior qualities which must be "understood" and "excused." Who can fail to detect the secretly glimmering hatred against the positive higher values, which are not essentially tied to the "species" -- a hatred hidden deep down below this "mild," "understanding," "humane" attitude? (Fs) (notabene)