Nietzsche and Herd Mentality

 

Friedrich Nietzsche was an unusual philosopher. He celebrated vitality, power, courage, and living dangerously. But his own life was marked by chronic illness, migraines, loneliness, poor eyesight, and eventual mental collapse. He wrote like a prophet of strength while inhabiting a body of weakness.

Paradox plagued him even after his death. He had fiercely opposed conformity, nationalism, anti-Semitism, and blind obedience to any authority. Yet after his death, parts of his work were distorted and appropriated by authoritarian and fascist movements, precisely the kind of forces he despised.

Today, a century and a quarter after his death, Nietzsche still remains relevant in many ways. The first would be his opposition to herd mentality and conformism. In many countries today, including India, people are increasingly becoming herds following certain larger-than-life personalities who call themselves leaders.

By “herd,” Nietzsche referred to people who let collective opinion determine their values. Instead of asking ‘What is true?’ and ‘What is worth becoming?’, they ask: What will others approve of? What is socially safe? What is fashionable? What protects me from criticism? The herd seeks comfort in numbers. If many believe something, it must be right. Nietzsche thought this attitude suffocates independent thought.

Herd mentality kills individuality. Every individual is a potential superhuman, in Nietzsche’s view. But conformism reduces that would-be superhuman to a mere copy. Society often rewards obedience more than originality. So most people remain as obedient as the cattle in a herd.

This herd mentality produces mediocrity as a moral standard. Creativity and greatness are often viewed with suspicion by any society. Such people are perceived as threats to society’s security and cohesion. Mediocrity is safe.

And mediocrity turns morality into social pressure. One of Nietzsche’s fundamental concerns was whether people are moral because they are good or because they fear disapproval.

A herd mentality says: Be like us, think like us, condemn what/whom we condemn.

When mediocre people cannot create or excel, they are likely to attack those who do. Nietzsche called this resentment which is actually bitterness transformed into moral accusation.

We can see umpteen examples of mediocre, bitter people today around us, especially on social media platforms. Look at all those people who measure their worth through likes, followers, or group approval.

Nationalism is an ideal example of herd mentality, for Nietzsche. Nationalism gives individuals a borrowed sense of worth. My nation is great, therefore I am great. My civilisation is ancient and glorious, therefore I matter. Nietzsche saw such attitudes as substitute for genuine self-development. Instead of becoming something individually, people dissolve into collective pride.

Nietzsche valued culture far more than politics. Music, philosophy, art, literature – these matter. Not politics. Politics may make a nation powerful. What use is that power if the nation remains vulgar or mediocre or crude? A nation can be politically successful yet culturally shallow.

Nietzsche still matters because he saw our age before it arrived: noisy crowds, borrowed convictions, wounded egos, and the desperate clinging to false pride. He remains the philosopher who asks whether we are truly living – or merely conforming.

PS. This was originally written on the request of friend and writer K V V S Murthy for his online magazine Bhadradri Incredible.