The Will to Power

Nietzsche here explores the relationship between society, the individual, and the will to power. He argues that the state manifests a collective will to power, in its striving “to war, to conquest, to revenge” (382). However, the state also suppresses the will to power of exceptional individuals to protect what he calls, “the power-instinct of the herd” (384). The state seeks not merely to punish those who deviate from societies’ moral order, but to instill a bad conscience regarding behavior it deems criminal. The state uses the creation of conscience, via the internalization of desires, as a preventative means. Bad conscience and shame act as internal mechanisms to deter individuals from committing crimes in the first place. The state acts primarily upon the soul of the citizen rather than the body.

At the same time, criminals are held up as objects of public opprobrium despite some criminals being noble and important figures. A criminal is often “a man who risks his life, his honor, his freedom” (392) and a “man of courage” (392). Nietzsche also argues that marriage serves a similarly repressive role in society. Its goal is not the promotion or protection of love. Rather, it is to regulate sexual desire under conditions that “keep the interests of society in view” (387).