ABSTRACT
At this stage, the response to mass society on the part of the élites and some of their leading spokespeople, intellectual and artistic representatives—such as Thomas Carlyle, Matthew Arnold, Gustave Le Bon and, most especially given his later resonance throughout the western world, Friedrich Nietzsche—is discussed. Nietzsche’s notion of “the Last Human” affords us an access to the most uncompromising, wide-ranging, incisive and influential form taken by the opposition to the masses. For Nietzsche, the triumph of the masses was inevitable (or at least so he claimed in his pessimist moments) and will signify the end of Western civilization, to be followed by an era of mediocrity, stasis and moral, economic and cultural dissolution. The mass project is politically democratic and economically and culturally egalitarian. As against this fateful devolution Nietzsche proposed, in his more buoyant moments, an ambitious project of renewal which he termed “a re-evaluation of all values” (Umwertung aller Werte). The significance of the Nietzschean project is not simply that it prefigures fascism in many ways—albeit not fully and not without contradictions; beyond its enormous impact, Nietzsche is a representative figure, whose thought provides a vital insight into the European Zeitgeist. It is shown how, during the 19th century, the issues dealt with by Nietzsche were at the heart of the political and cultural discourse in Europe.
