As Bad As It Gets Nietzsche Still Makes Me Smile
Nov. 11, `70
I've really been living a solitary existence; the cold forced
everybody off the beach. I ran out of money (except for the $5.
stashed away for my 1500 mile trip home). Iva brought out a bag of
groceries; I guess she wanted me to stick around. I'm pushing it
now, leaving the beach is a certainty; I'm actually looking forward
to it. One of the reasons beach life is less satisfying (besides the
money) is my memory of Jolynn. I'm convinced I could love her, that
is, if I don't already. This loneliness is a bitch. The weather
hasn't given me any reason to stay either. It's fifty degrees in the
daytime, dropping to freezing at night. The only thing that's been
good for me is Nietzsche. As bad as it gets, after reading him, I
can always count on a smile
I wouldn't say that I agree with him on everything, but the more I
read, the more I enjoy his style. First, I believe he is saying that
a "will to power" drives life. Human nature is simply the use of
this power to accomplish goals and satisfy desires. All we are,
according to Nietzsche, are creatures of desire and need. We might
think we want peace and tranquility. Forget it, it won't happen. To
make matters worse, we are burdened with this constant craving to
speculate about "ideal existence," when in reality we are and will
always be simple rule followers. The rules that get followed,
however, are only meant to work for some people some of the time. At
best, we can look forward to a heard-mentality-existence, and then
we die.
Its not a pretty picture! Nietzsche counters this vision of reality
by saying that if we would just act in accordance with our natural
instincts things would be different and better. The problem is that
we think we know what motivates us when in reality mental causes do
not exist. What's in our minds, at any given moment, is only a
reflection of some previous experience reconstructed. We reason
phenomena to fit familiar patterns; patterns that are meant to
neutralize fears and anxieties arising from life's uncertainties. We
create "imaginary causes" (Nietzsche's term) in order to cope with
this uncertainty. Religion and morality are prime examples. They are
habitual responses to life's disorder and uncertainty. Guilt, sin,
and punishment, along with faith, hope and chastity are all products
of our over active imaginations.
Only when morality is driven by the "will to power" does it cease
being a product of imagination. "Morality," says Nietzsche, "must be
viewed as a means and not an end." The "will to power, the will to
master," becomes the moral precedent for all morality. In nature
there are few masters and even they, in the end, succumb to decay
and death. There is only one true master and that master is
the "will to power"; it is a moral imperative. Survivors conform and
obey, or they cease to exist. There are no exceptions.
Traditional moral authority (religious authority) falsely commands
against the natural instincts of the "will to power." Society has
misrepresented the moral precedent of obedience (the precedent set
by the forces of Nature) by inventing the morality of "Thou shalt
not." Growth is stunted when this false morality is substituted for
boldness, independence and freethinking. This false morality
condemns free spirits to a life of moderation and mediocrity. By
denying the moral precedent of obedience, "Thou shalt morality"
becomes a contradiction in terms. When "Thou shalt morality,"
denies fear, (the source of all morality), it denies itself.
After demolishing traditional morality, Nietzsche develops his
concept of "higher man" and higher morality. Higher morality is
realized in the warp and woof of mankind's unceasing, striving
nature. When we learn to inexhaustibly affirm life in the face of
adversity, when we learn to shrug off pain and suffering, then we
also learn higher morality. In this respect, Nietzsche sets
the "selfless man" (the sage who pursues renunciation) on his head.
In Nietzsche's morality there is no protest against life, no purging
the self in order to get beyond illusion. In fact, in Nietzsche's
morality, only when one wills (eternally) agony and anguish, is he
able to celebrate the masquerade of appearance without the need to
get behind it. One cannot have an appetite for life without also
having an appetite for suffering, and in Nietzsche's morality one's
appetite for life feeds off an equal appetite for suffering. Only at
this level of affirmation is a person able to unlearn what has been
learned, is able to dominate and command, and is able to
spontaneously create his own morality, the morality of Nietzsche's
Ubermensch, or "higher man."
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