Setting the Stage for The Will to Power 297adamantly opposed all such movements. For him, the meaning of world
history was not the happiness and prosperity of the greatest possible
number but individual manifestations of success in life. The culture of
political and social democracy was a concern of the "last people," whom
he disparaged. He threw overboard the state-sponsored ethics of the
common welfare because he regarded such ethics as an impediment to
the self-configuration of great individuals. If, however, the great per-
sonalities were to vanish, the only remaining significance of history
would be lost in the process. By defending the residual significance of
history, Nietzsche assailed democracy and declared that what mattered
was "delaying the complete appeasement of the democratic herd ani-
mal" (11,587; WP% 125).
The problem may be formulated as follows: Nietzsche was incapable
of reconciling the ideas of self-enhancement and solidarity, or at least
allowing them to coexist. Strongly as he opposed Christianity, he might
have taken a lesson from this religion on one crucial issue. The genius of
Christianity was its time-honored achievement of linking solidarity and
self-enhancement. Bringing God into the debate in a context that tran-
scended the merely moralistic point of view signified an immense
expansion of the spiritual dimension. Spiritual refinement might lead to
self-enhancement, which could be equally valid on a social level. These
enhancements and advancements were viewed not as personal achieve-
ments but as mercy, which diminished the pride of individual accom-
plishment. Moreover, self-enhancement could take place in the context
of both the religious and the secular spheres: dvitas dei and civitas civilis.
In the one sphere, an individual could loom large and, in the other,
remain small. Those able to exist in both wodds would have few diffi-
culties reconciling the principles of self-enhancement and solidarity.
Nietzsche had similarly conceived of a "bicameral system" of culture
in Human, All Too Human. In that earlier work, he described the system
as one chamber being heated up by the passions of genius while the
other was cooled off with principles of common sense and balanced out
with collective pragmatism. Thus, Nietzsche ultimately envisioned one