Our attitude toward men, and manners, and affairs
experiences a radical change. This in most cases takes place
unconsciously, or if conscious of it, we refrain from confessing it even
to ourselves.
There are some, however, who are both frank enough and bold enough to
announce their belief in the radical doctrine which demands a complete
transformation of essential values. For them, good is evil and evil
good, and they seem not ashamed to avow it. The conspicuous German
philosopher of later years, Nietzsche, with a naive simplicity insists
that the great need of our modern civilization is that which he
designates as "the transvaluation of all values." By this he means the
complete transformation of certain ideas of supreme value into their
direct opposites. He declares, for instance, that the central virtues of
Christianity, such as those of self-sacrifice, pity, mercy, indicate an
inherent weakness of the human race, and that the strong man dissipates
his energies through the offices of kindness and helpfulness. Thus the
law which commands us to bear one another's burdens must be regarded as
obsolete.
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