There is one thing which we must never forget: the majority can never replace the man. It is not only representative of stupidity, but of cowardice as well. No more than one hundred empty heads make one wise man will one heroic decision arise from a hundred cowards. The progress and culture of humanity are not products of the majority, but rest exclusively on the genius and energy of personality.
Anyone that wants to win the broad masses must know the key to their heart: Will and Power; and along with carrying out a positive struggle for his own aims, he must destroy the opponent for those aims. The people see the proof of their own right in ruthless attack, not in renouncing destruction. They are a piece of nature and so what they desire is the victory of the stronger and the destruction of the weak, or his unconditional subjection.
The goal of a political reform movement will never be reached by 'enlightenment work' or by 'influencing ruling circles', but only by the achievement of political power. Every world-moving idea has the right, the duty of securing those means which make possible the execution of its idea. The movement with reform purposes must from the first day of its existence feel itself a movement of the masses and not a literary tea-club or a shopkeepers bowling society.
When one side, criminal though it may be, sets out to storm the existing order, the other side can resist only if it clothes itself in the forms of a new faith, and for a cowardly defensive, substitutes a courageous and brutal attack. Any attempt to combat a philosophy with methods of violence will fail unless the fight takes the form of attack for a new spiritual attitude; then the theoretician, provided his ideas are immortal, will harvest the fame of posterity.
A man who is aware of a given danger and sees the possibility of a remedy with his own eyes, has the duty to stand up before the whole public against the evil and for its cure. If any man wants to put into effect a bold idea whose realisation seems useful in the interests of his fellow men, he will first of all have to seek supporters who are ready to fight for his intentions. World history is made by minorities; When this minority of numbers embodies majority of will and determination. Any man who wants to be leader bears along with unlimited authority, also the ultimate and heaviest responsibility. Anyone not equal to this, or too cowardly to bear the consequences of his acts, is not fit to be a leader; only the hero is cut out for this. The prerequisites for the resurrection of the people are the forces of the will. Give a coward ten pistols and if attacked he will not be able to fire a single shot. For him they are more worthless than a knotted stick for a courageous man. One man must step forward to struggle for the sole correctness of a philosophical ideal, until from the shifting waves of a free thought-world there will arise a brazen cliff of solid unity in faith and will. The general right for such an activity is based on necessity, the personal right of success.
In the steady and constant application of force lies the prerequisite of success. This can arise only from a definite spiritual conviction. Any violence which does not spring from a firm, spiritual base will be wavering and uncertain. In the struggle between two philosophies, the weapon of brutal force, persistently and ruthlessly applied, leads to a decision for the side it supports. The community of the great demonstration strengthens the individual, helps to create an esprit de corps, confirms the rightness of the new doctrine. The will, the longing and also the power of thousands are accumulated in every individual. The man who enters such a meeting doubting and wavering, leaves it inwardly reinforced: he has become a link in the community.
In every single speech it is important to realise clearly in advance the presumable content and form of the objections to be expected in the discussion, and to pull every one of them apart in the speech itself: the listener, even if he comes stuffed with the objections he has been taught, but otherwise with an honest heart, has his attention drawn more and more to the speech.
"Nearly always in these years I faced an assemblage of people who believe the opposite of what I believed. Then it was the work of two hours to life two or three thousand people out of a previous convictions, blow by blow to shatter the foundation of their previous opinions, and finally to lead them across to our convictions and our philosophy of life."
"I spoke on this theme at meetings of two thousand people, and often I was struck by the glances of three thousand six hundred hostile eyes. And three hours later I had before me a surging mass full of the holiest indignation and boundless wrath."
"I gradually transformed myself into a speaker for mass meetings, I became practiced in the pathos and the gestures which a great hall, with its thousands of people demands. The spoken word alone - for general physiological reasons - is able to bring about really great changes. The speaker gets a continuous correction of his speech from the crowd he is addressing, since he can see in the faces of his listeners to what extent they can follow his arguments with understanding, and whether the impression and effect of his words lead to the desired goal. If he errs, even in the slightest, he has the living correction before him."
It is not seldom a question of overcoming prejudices which are not based on reason, but, for the most part unconsciously, are supported only by sentiment. To overcome the barrier, only an appeal to those mysterious powers themselves can be effective. Even the time of day can have a decisive influence on the effect. The impression made by a performance at three in the afternoon is not as great as that made in the evening. At night, people succumb more easily to the dominating force of a stronger will.
By the admitting of numerous moderate bourgeois elements the basic attitude of the movement will always be governed by them and lose the prospect of winning appreciable support from the broad masses. As a result, such a movement will not rise above mere criticising and grumbling. The faith bordering more or less on religion, combined with a similar spirit of sacrifice, will cease to exist; in its place ultimately, a putrid peace.
It is false to believe that a purely passive will, desiring only to preserve itself, can for any length of time, resist a will that is no less powerful, but proceeds actively. The broad masses are not to be moved by the lemonade-like out-pourings of literary aesthetes and drawing-room heroes. To all out present day fops and knights of the pen: the greatest revolutions have never been directed by a goose-quill! Only a storm of hot passion can turn the destinies of peoples, and he alone can arouse passion who bears it within himself!
Leading means being able to move masses. The organiser must primarily be a psychologist, must take weakness and bestiality equally into account; must sift the human material the movement wins into two large groups: supporters and members. The function of propaganda is to attract supporters, the function of organisation to win members. A supporter of the movement declares himself in agreement with its aims, a member is one who fights for them. Membership requires an activistic form of mind and this corresponds to the minority of men. From this it results that the number of supporters cannot be too large but that the number of members can more readily be too large than too small.
Fusions ('working federations' etc.; eight cripples joining arms to produce one gladiator) are the enemies of natural development: usually they hinder the solution of the problem. An agreement with such associations is a question of tactics, undertaken for a short time. Nothing really good in this world has ever been achieved bu coalitions. The strong are mightiest alone. Every enlargement of the movement through union with another of similar character means an increase in outward dimensions: in truth it only takes over the germs of an inner-weakening: for the like character is in reality never present; otherwise there would not be two movements but one. Natural law demands the victory of the stronger and the cultivation of the victor's force and strength made possible alone by the resultant struggle. The greatness of a movement is guaranteed by the unrestricted development of its inner strength.
The future of a movement is conditioned by the fanaticism, yes, the intolerance, with which its adherents uphold it as the sole correct movement, and push it past the other formations of a similar sort. On principle the members must view the struggle as something self-experienced (das selbst Erlebte) therefore they must feel that the hostility of their enemies is the presupposition for their right to exist.
Truly German democracy is characterised by the free election of a leader and his obligation fully to assume all responsibility for his actions and omisions. In it there is no majority vote on individual questions, but only a decision of an individual who must answer with his fortune and his life for his choice. Scarcely anyone would be prepared to dedicate his person to so risky a task, prepared of his own accord to pledge his person and his head for the execution of a dauntless resolve, but that by the very greatness of the responsibility to be assumed, incompetents and weaklings are frightened off.
The lack of great, creative, renewing idea means at all times a limitation of fighting force. Firm belief in the right to apply even the most brutal weapons is bound up with faith in victory. Voluntary fulfillment of duty, willing and able to carry on the fight for victory, has always determined the best men in their actions, but not the average, rooted in understanding in its passive form. This means, in every really great movement, a backbone, a solid organisation, exclusive, rigid and firm. The core of the movement alone should lead, determine the propaganda and in full possession of power, undertake the actions which are necessary. All great movements, whether religious or political, must attribute their successes to these principles: lasting successes are not even thinkable without consideration of these laws.
"more to come"
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