"the Böse is man's best force"[1]—not, indeed, the goal, as Professor Riehl observes, but the way to the goal[2] [i.e., a part of the way].
And when we turn from the individual and contemplate the general life and movement of the world, we see (Nietzsche thinks) that destruction has its part to play there as well as construction or conservation—and malevolence, the Böse, is only a name for the destructive force and spirit.[3] It is necessary to distinguish between what upholds a group, and what advances the species, raises the type.[4] The social virtues—mutual consideration and friendliness, respect for authority, reverence for law and custom—strengthen and solidify an existing group, but they do not change its character; and if there is to be change, either the group must be refashioned, or the new type be reached through its disintegration or destruction. In the one case as in the other, those who attempt to make the change seem evil forces to the group as it is. A foreign conqueror is the very impersonation of evil to a group, and those who propound strange ideas at home are almost equally objects of suspicion and dread. Moreover, they may be spirits of destruction. To what extent wish to benefit mingles with malice in individual cases may be difficult to determine—but Nietzsche thinks that malice plays its part. Departure from ancient custom has often come, he remarks, not so much from better intelligence as from strong malicious impulses—the heretic being something like a witch in the pleasure he takes in harming what is established (whether men or opinions).[5] The instinct for seeing things dissolve, wanton skepticism, pleasure in adventure, even personal spite and revenge have contributed to progress, and it must be forgiven those so inspired, if on occasion they posed as "martyrs to the truth."[6] And whether initiators of change are malicious, or only wish change in order that their group may be better preserved,b they seem böse to those near them—and actually are böse to things as they are. Indeed, if change
