Nietzsche attack upon such ism’s and ideologies as Christianity is
because, according to Nietzsche, Christianity made human beings
“weak” and that “weakness” has corrupted our Modern age…
because of Christian “morality”, western man has become
weak because Christian “Morality” is about bringing about
weakness in human beings…
slave morality which was championed by the Christian church,
is anti-life, anti-body, anti-sex… these “ideal’s” are what have
weakened human beings in the west…
the “herd” mentality is one designed to raise the weak to compete
or even destroy the “strong”…
whereas I hold that the “herd” mentality is held because of the failure
to overcome our indoctrinations of childhood…
we haven’t overcome… that is the “herd” mentality…
and this is one of the differences between Nietzsche and myself…
whereas Nietzsche hold that democracy is “herd” mentality, I hold
that we can use democracy to become who we are…
Nietzsche held that Goethe basically made himself… he created
who he was and for Nietzsche, Goethe was the quintessential
human being…the “higher” man…and what made Goethe the
quintessential human being?
he was self directed, he made his own “rules”, he was rational,
he was autonomous…he was one of the great “creators” of literature
in history… he was able to find and fulfill his possibilities as a
human being, writer, thinker, poet, scientist, government official,
everything he did, he was great at it…
Goethe was anti-Christian… and in part, that was part of his appeal
for Nietzsche…and Goethe had no use for such silly concepts as
democracy and liberalism and other crutches used by the great
unwashed masses…he was above such things as ideologies and ism’s…
I hold that we can rise above such things as “slave” morality by
becoming free of such things by our overcoming, by our
escaping our childhood indoctrinations…
we can create who we are if we no longer hold to human beings
as being dependent upon such ideal’s as religions, political parties,
beliefs in such ism’s and ideologies as capitalism and communism…
we can escape the tyranny of ism’s and ideologies by
following our values instead of blindly following
ism’s and ideologies…
such ism’s and ideologies as democracies and capitalism is really
the beginning of the story, not the end…
because what comes after democracies and capitalism is the story,
not the end…what is next?
such isms and ideologies as democracy and capitalism and political parties
are in synch with our stage of evolution of being animal/human… but to
grow into becoming human, fully human, we must take the next step into
our future… and ending the need for such damaging and destructive
ism’s and ideologies as democracies, capitalism, communism, catholicism,
Buddhism, Christianity, political parties, and to find our growth as
human beings in our becoming who we are, not in our ism’s and
ideologies…
in becoming human, not just animal/human… that is where our growth
as human beings will come and that means we must walk away from
ism’s and ideologies that hold us hostage to viewpoints that
prevent us from exploring our possibilities as human beings…
Goethe wasn’t engaged with democracies or communism or
political parties or religions because they don’t aid us in our
becoming who we are… he engaged in writing or science
or writing plays as part of becoming human, not as an exercise in
ism’s or ideologies…
Goethe was seeking his possibilities, not as an participant
in ism’s or ideologies… he didn’t care about ism’s or
ideologies… he cared about becoming, he cared about what it
meant to be human, he cared about seeking his possibilities…
he cared about what values he held…
his book, “Faust” is an exploration of values…
are Christian values worth having? no was his answer…
what values are worth having as a human being?
virtually the very first lines of “Faust” is this:
“I have, alas, studied philosophy,
Jurisprudence, and medicine, too,
And worst of all, Theology.”
Goethe answer was to reject these ism’s and try to find
another answer…and Faust then to engage with
the use of lust and power… he tried the old method
of seeking women and power… and that was quite
a spectacular failure… his “Faust” is an exercise in
the modern techniques of seeking fame, money, power,
titles…
and his “Faust” failed… because seeking these “Modern”
methods themselves, are the path to failure…
the book “Faust” was an engagement with, what not to do
as a “modern” person…
after one seeks fame, and power and money and lust
and titles, what is left? an engagement with the values
we hold…
our search for becoming who we are, has nothing to do with
ism’s and ideologies and political parties and the "modern’
engagement with fame and money and power and lust…
becoming rational and autonomous, that is something worth
pursuing… because that is something that can lead us to
becoming who we are… seeking values is something
worth pursuing…
seeking the ago old failures of religions and politics
and money and power… they go nowhere because
they have no where to go… what happens when you achieve
money or power or fame… there is no place to go afterwards…
it leads nowhere… you can only work toward achieving more money or
more power or more fame, it cannot lead you to further growth as
a human being… that is the modern path of failure… to achieve
anything of value in the Modern world means you have no where
else to go… it is a dead end… money, wealth, power, fame, titles…
what is after them? nothing…
but values, to achieving values, that can lead to growth as a human being,
to achieve growth in going from animal/human to being fully human,
that is growth that can lead us to new grounds to what it means to
be human…
so the modern answers of religion and political parties and wealth
and power is not an answer because there is no growth as a human being
while engaged in those modern answers…
seek something different… become rational or autonomous or
seek your possibilities as a human being…
Kropotkin