148 Nietzschecratic upheaval as linked together in this manner. Why, then, was this
state of affairs so unappealing to him? Why was he afraid of democracy?
We have already seen the answers to these questions in our earlier dis-
cussion of his defense of slavery. The following statement from his
essay 'The Greek State" should be noted here once again: "In order to
have a broad, deep, and fertile soil for artistic development, the over-
whelming majority must be slavishly subjected to the necessities of life
to serve a minority beyond the measure of its individual needs" (1,767;
TGS). Nietzsche feared that if knowledge and learning were to become
available to the majority of people, a horrifying, culturally devastating
uprising would ensue, because the "barbaric slave class" would plan
revenge "not only for itself but for all generations" (1,117; BT% 18). For
him, this awful revenge was a "calamity slumbering in the womb of the-
oretical culture" (1,117).
Nietzsche contended that the order of ancient or modern slaveholder
societies could be preserved only if everyone accepted the basic tragic
constitution of human life as a consequence "of the natural cruelty of
things" (1,119; BT% 18). The slaves put up with cruelty, which is one
aspect of Dionysian wisdom, and the cultural elite is aware of this cru-
elty and seeks refuge behind the shield of art, which is its other aspect.
How could Nietzsche possibly have failed to notice the obviously cyni-
cal implications of this idea? Most likely, he was convinced that the cul-
tural elite—if it is really the elite that it alleges to be—also suffers from
the cruelty of existence and spreads out the protective shield of art only
in light of this tragic insight The slave class in the cruel underworld of
society lives and breathes tragedy, and the cultural elite is cognizant of
tragedy, which makes for a kind of equilibrium. The one group is the
misfortune, and the other observes it. Nietzsche applied his view of
tragedy to everyday concerns as well. He was against shortening the
length of the workday from twelve hours a day to eleven in Basel. He
was a proponent of child labor, noting with approval that Basel permit-
ted children over the age of twelve to work up to eleven hours a day. He
opposed educational groups for workers. Still, he felt that cruelties