6 passages
Somewhere there are still peoples and herds, but not with us, my brethren: here there are states. A state? What is that? Well! open now your ears unto me, for now will I say unto you my word concerning the death of…
Zarathustra contrasts living peoples, made by creators who served life, with the state, made by destroyers who snare many. The state lies in every tongue of good and evil and has stolen all it owns.
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A state, is called the coldest of all cold monsters.
The state is named a cold monster that lies.
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Many too many are born: for the superfluous ones was the state devised! See just how it enticeth them to it, the many-too-many! How it swalloweth and cheweth and recheweth them! “On earth there is nothing greater than…
The state draws in the superfluous and tempts even great souls and heroes into worshipping it. It glorifies a dying for many as 'life', a slow suicide of all.
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Just see these superfluous ones! They steal the works of the inventors and the treasures of the wise. Culture, they call their theft—and everything becometh sickness and trouble unto them! Just see these superfluous…
Repeating 'Just see these superfluous ones', Zarathustra shows them stealing the works of the wise, getting poorer as they grow rich, and scrambling toward a throne that may sit on filth.
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My brethren, will ye suffocate in the fumes of their maws and appetites! Better break the windows and jump into the open air! Do go out of the way of the bad odour! Withdraw from the idolatry of the superfluous! Do go…
Zarathustra urges his brethren to break the windows, leave the fumes, and take the open earth. Moderate poverty frees one from being possessed.
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There, where the state ceaseth—there only commenceth the man who is not superfluous: there commenceth the song of the necessary ones, the single and irreplaceable melody. There, where the state CEASETH—pray look…
Zarathustra says that where the state ceases, the song of the necessary, irreplaceable ones begins, and he points to the rainbow and bridges of the Superman.
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What the critics said
Brandes restates Zarathustra's teaching that the State is the coldest of monsters whose lie is that it is the people, whereas creators made peoples; the State is for the many-too-many, and only where it ceases does the man who is a bridge to the Superman begin.
Brandes restates Zarathustra's teaching that the State is the coldest of monsters whose lie is that it is the people, whereas creators made peoples; the State is for the many-too-many, and only where it ceases does the man who is a bridge to the Superman begin.