“State is the Name of the Coldest of All Cold Monsters. Coldly Lies It Also; And This Lie Creeps from Its Mouth: “I, the State, Am the People.””
Friedrich Nietzsche is, without a doubt, one of the most misunderstood and misinterpreted philosophers in history. But for those who understand his message, many of his statements and aphorisms feel deeply prophetic.
More than a century later, Nietzsche’s words remain relevant. They still describe many aspects of our situation with striking accuracy. In one of his most influential books, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, written in four parts between 1883 and 1885, Nietzsche deals with ideas such as the eternal recurrence, the death of God, and the Übermensch.
In this philosophical novel, Nietzsche gives a harsh critique of the state, which he calls “the new idol.” This should be understood in the context of Nietzsche’s time. He lived during the rise of a young German state that sought unity through intense nationalism. That nationalism would later help lead Europe into two devastating wars in the twentieth century.
Although Nietzsche had some sympathy in his youth for Bismarck and the project of German unification, he later rejected Bismarck’s militarism and politics. He even called him “the idiot par excellence,” criticizing him for fighting wars in favor of the dynastic politics of the Hohenzollerns instead of pursuing “great missions, universal and historical goals of a supreme and refined intellect.”
Nietzsche describes the state as “the new idol,” an idol worshiped by the masses. For him, the state encourages uniformity and mediocrity. It flatters the crowd, absorbs the individual, and presents itself as something sacred. True freedom, in Nietzsche’s view, can only be found outside its control.
The passage begins with harsh words directed at the state:
Somewhere there are still peoples and herds, but not with us, my brothers: here there are states. A state? What is that? Well! Open now your ears to me, for now will I say to you my word concerning the death of peoples. State is the name of the coldest of all cold monsters. Coldly lies it also; and this lie creeps from its mouth: “I, the state, am the people.”
He continues:
It is a lie! Creators were they who created peoples, and hung a faith and a love over them: thus they served life. Destroyers, are they who lay traps for many, and call it the state: they hang a sword and a hundred cravings over them. Where there is still a people, there the state is not understood, but hated as the evil eye, and as sin against laws and customs. This sign I give to you: every people speaks its language of good and evil: this its neighbor understands not. Its language has it devised for itself in laws and customs.
Nietzsche sees the state as a monster, even the coldest of monsters. It lies when it says, “I, the state, am the people.” To Nietzsche, this is not only false but dangerous. It turns the state into an illusion that people worship, and as long as they believe this lie, real human flourishing becomes impossible.
He goes on:
But the state lies in all languages of good and evil; and whatever it says it lies; and whatever it has it has stolen. False is everything in it; with stolen teeth it bites, the biting one. False are even its bowels. Confusion of language of good and evil; this sign I give to you as the sign of the state. Truly, the will to death, indicates this sign! Truly, it beckons to the preachers of death! Many too many are born: for the superfluous ones was the state devised! See just how it entices them to it, the many-too-many! How it swallows and chews and re-chews them! “On earth there is nothing greater than I: it is I who am the regulating finger of God.” — thus roars the monster.
For Nietzsche, the state survives through illusion and manipulation. It creates its own language of good and evil in order to justify its actions. It defines morality on its own terms, then uses that morality to control the masses and force them into obedience.
The ordinary person is the easiest victim of the state’s lies. But Nietzsche also warns that intelligent and noble people can fall into the same trap. Even “great souls” can become tired of struggle and surrender themselves to the new idol.
And not only the long-eared and short-sighted fall upon their knees! Ah! even in your ears, you great souls, it whispers its gloomy lies! Ah! it finds out the rich hearts which willingly lavish themselves! Yes, it finds you out too, you conquerors of the old God! Weary you became of the conflict, and now your weariness serves the new idol! Heroes and honorable ones, it would rather set up around it, the new idol! Gladly it basks in the sunshine of good consciences, — the cold monster!
The state does not only attract the weak. It also tempts the strong. It offers honor, recognition, power, and purpose. It takes people who might have served life and turns them into servants of the state.
Nietzsche continues:
Everything will it give you, if you worship it, the new idol: thus it purchases the gleam of your virtue, and the glance of your proud eyes. It seeks to allure by means of you, the many-too-many! Yes, a hellish artifice has here been devised, a death-horse jingling with the trappings of divine honors! Yes, a dying for many has here been devised, which glorifies itself as life: truly, a hearty service to all preachers of death! The state, I call it, where all are poison-drinkers, the good and the bad: the state, where all lose themselves, the good and the bad: the state, where the slow suicide of all — is called “life.”
Here Nietzsche attacks the way the state turns sacrifice into virtue. It convinces people that dying for it is noble. It gives divine honor to death and calls this “life.” In this sense, the state becomes a preacher of death. It does not serve life; it consumes life.
He then turns his criticism toward the people who gather around the state:
Just see these superfluous ones! They steal the works of the inventors and the treasures of the wise. Culture, they call their theft — and everything becomes sickness and trouble to them! Just see these superfluous ones! Sick are they always; they vomit their bile and call it a newspaper. They devour one another, and cannot even digest themselves. Just see these superfluous ones! Wealth they acquire and become poorer thereby. Power they seek for, and above all, the lever of power, much money — these impotent ones! See them clamber, these nimble apes! They clamber over one another, and thus scuffle into the mud and the abyss. Towards the throne they all strive: it is their madness — as if happiness sat on the throne! Often sits filth on the throne. — and often also the throne on filth. Madmen they all seem to me, and clambering apes, and too eager. Badly smells their idol to me, the cold monster: badly they all smell to me, these idolaters.
Nietzsche sees the masses worshiping the state as a new idol. The state promises them prosperity, safety, and meaning if they conform to its rules, regulations, and morality. But for Nietzsche, whatever the state gives has already been taken from someone else. It is a thief that expects praise for its theft.
The state also understands that human beings are corruptible. Many people are willing to give up their freedom, dignity, and individuality in exchange for power or recognition. The state uses this weakness. It creates idols and calls them honorable. It praises those who serve it, especially those willing to die for it, and calls them heroes.
This is one of Nietzsche’s strongest criticisms. The state does not simply rule over people; it convinces them to worship their own submission. It turns obedience into virtue and sacrifice into glory.
The passage ends with a call to leave the suffocating atmosphere of the state:
My brothers, will you suffocate in the fumes of their snouts and appetites! Better break the windows and jump into the open air! Go away from the bad odor! Withdraw from the idolatry of the superfluous! Go away from the bad odor! Withdraw from the steam of these human sacrifices! Open still remains the earth for great souls. There are still many empty seats for the lonesome and the twosome, fanned by the fragrance of silent seas. Open still remains a free life for great souls. Truly, he who possesses little is so much the less possessed: praised be a little poverty! There, where the state ceases — there only commences the man who is not superfluous: there commences the song of the necessary ones, the single and irreplaceable melody. There, where the state ceases — pray look there, my brothers! Do you not see it, the rainbow and the bridges of the overman? — Thus spoke Zarathustra.
Nietzsche warns against the destructive nature of the state and against the danger of becoming its slave and worshiper. The final part of this passage is especially powerful. For Nietzsche, where the state dominates, the individual becomes weaker, smaller, and less alive. But where the state ceases to rule over the human spirit, something higher becomes possible.
That is where the path toward the Übermensch begins.
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