How much or how little danger there is to the community
or to equality in an opinion, in a condition or affect, in a will, in a talent,
this is now the moral perspective: and

     fear is once again the mother of morality.

When the highest and strongest drives erupt in passion,
driving the individual up and out and far above the average,
over the depths of the herd conscience,
the self-esteem of the community is destroyed
– its faith in itself, its backbone, as it were, is broken:
as a result, these are the very drives that will be denounced and slandered the most.
A high, independent spiritedness,
a will to stand alone, even an excellent faculty of reason,
will be perceived as a threat.

Everything that raises the individual over the herd
and frightens the neighbor will henceforth be called evil;
the proper, modest, unobtrusive, equalizing attitude and
the mediocrity of desires acquire moral names and honors.

Finally, in very peaceable circumstances there are fewer and fewer opportunities
and less and less need to nurture an instinct for severity or hardness;
and now every severity starts disturbing the conscience,
even where justice is concerned. A high and hard nobility and self-reliance is almost offensive, and provokes suspicion;

“the lamb,” and “the sheep” even more, gains respect.

– There is a point in the history of a society when it becomes
pathologically enervated and tenderized
and it takes sides, quite honestly and earnestly,
with those who do it harm, with criminals.

Punishment: that seems somehow unjust to this society,
– it certainly finds the thoughts of “punishment” and “needing to punish”
both painful and frightening.

“Isn’t it enough to render him unthreatening?
Why punish him as well?
Punishment is itself fearful!”

– with these questions,
the herd morality, the morality of timidity,
draws its final consequences.

Beyond Good and Evil, by Friedrich Nietzsche, trans. by Judith Butler, aphorism 201

Now is a time, when a habitual criminal, a recently convicted felon, is perceived as copacetic candidate for the presidency. The psychological zeitgeist of some, the threat assessment to well being now being “off the charts” for Americans living in Florida, in Texas, Wyoming, Oklahoma – to some it seems unfair, a travesty to punish a man who once boasted on camera of his alacrity at molesting women.  The perceived degradation of America has reached a point, that an individual disposed to cruelty is put forward to occupy the oval office, to lead the nation.  Education in general is devalued (religious education is the exception). Higher education specially is regarded as a clear and immanent threat.

There is an old proverb known to every Japanese.

“The nail that sticks out, gets hammered down.”

“出る釘は打たれる“

Is the saying reductive? Of course. In these times, that is exactly what may be in store…