What will make itself a part of an ascending humanity, of a process by which the type will be raised and the power and splendor of the species shine forth, what will at last give us "supermen"?—that is the critical question. If the energy of ascending life is in a man, or, if not just that, if he is willing to be used for ascending life, if he will do good work, even if only to stand and wait on those who are better than he, such a man is good, and all, high and low, will protect him; but if a man is a sponge, a parasite, unfruitful, unproductive—not to say diseased and degenerate—he is bad, and pity to him is misplaced.
Nietzsche argues substantially in this way: there can be no solidarity in a society where there are unfruitful, unproductive, and destructive elements, which may moreover have still more degenerate offspring than themselves; to this extent the law of altruism does not apply; there is no right to help, to equality of lot, of unsound members—the organism is liable to perish if such a course is pursued; when within it the smallest organ fails to do its part in however slight degree, the organism degenerates; the physiologist accordingly—the social physiologist as truly as one who deals with a physical body—demands the removal of the degenerate part, denies solidarity with it, is at the farthest remove from pity for it.[1] Undoubtedly it is strong doctrine, and yet Nietzsche must not be taken to mean what he does not mean. It is not, for example, temporary illness or disability that he has in mind; I might almost say that it is not primarily sickness of the body at all, but rather of will and character, and bodily incapacity so far as it is a symptom of this, of defective life-energy. We read that Zarathustra is gentle to the sick and wishes that they may recover and create a higher body for themselves.[2] It is the hopeless, the badly made in the beginning, that Nietzsche has in view. Secondly, he does not mean, as some have understood him, particularly the working class, the poor pecuniarily. Nietzsche has as much honor for the worker with his hands, as much sense of his necessity, his indispensableness in an organic
