The Prudence of the Lowest Order

Linked from Essay I, Section 13: "...this prudence of the lowest order which even insects possess (posing as dead, when in great danger, so as not to do 'too much')...."

Human life in common is only made possible when a majority comes together which is stronger than any separate individual and which remains united against all separate individuals. The power of the community is then set up as 'right' in opposition to the power of the individual, which is condemned as 'brute force'. This replacement of the power of the
individual by the power of a community constitutes the decisive step of civilization....

It does not seem as though any influence could induce a man to change his nature into a termite's. No doubt he will always defend his claim to individual liberty against the will of the group.

From Sigmund Freud, Civilization and its Discontents III, p. 26-7

Reader's Questions

• Freud and Nietzsche seem to be discussing a similar phenomenon. What elements of their rhetoric express their attitudes or beliefs about how necessary or beneficial this phenomenon is in the history of human social development?

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