Every college kid knows Nietzsche said, “What doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger”. That’s also about all they know about Nietzsche. That’s all I knew, too. Until I decided to read what he said in his own words.
I discovered poetic aphorisms, long random musings that rarely came to any conclusion, that instead, led to new questions. Nietzsche agonized over his main theme which was the sublimation of human-kind.
By sublimation, Nietzsche meant redirection, or rebirth. His model was the myth of Dionysus who was destroyed, then reborn, over and over.
In an ambiguous way, “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” can be considered an ethereal synopsis of Nietzsche’s rambling philosophy. The trouble is everyone has their own interpretation of what the phrase means. That’s true of nearly all his rare clearly-worded, yet open-to-interpretation, aphorisms.
The rock band, The Verve once described themselves as, “selfish, self-centered, and self-indulgent, just as we should be”. Maybe other bands have this same opinion of themselves, but lack the hutzpah to say it so boldly. Nietzsche might have thought, ‘selfish, self-centered, and self-indulgent’ as tolerable representation of his Uebermensch, or Overman, personified as Zarathustra in Thus Spake Zarathustra.
Zarathustra, unlike Nietzsche, speaks in short clear poetic sentences, though the ringing words remain open to interpretation:
Thus Spake Zarathustra, (On the bite of the Viper) – “One day Zarathustra had fallen asleep under a fig tree because it was hot, and had thrown his arms over his face. Then a viper came and bit his neck so that the pain made Zarathustra cry out. When he had put down his arms he saw the snake. It in turn recognized the eyes of Zarathustra, writhed awkwardly and tried to get away. ‘Please stay, said Zarathustra, ‘as yet you have not accepted my thanks! You awoke me in time. I still have a long way to go’. ‘Your way is very short’, the viper answered sadly, ‘my poison kills’. Zarathustra smiled and said: ‘When did a dragon ever die from the poison of a snake? But take back your poison! You are not rich enough to give it to me’. Then the viper fell about Zarathustra’s neck and licked the wound”.
That has the cadence of some traditional folk tale imparting some timeless wisdom. I have no idea what that wisdom might be. But it sounds good. Certainly more entertaining than Nietzsche’s turgid philosophical prose.
Nietzsche’s description of Zarathustra is “The human who points the way beyond all that is now human as it’s complete sublimation”.
Well, that clears it up. No?
After reading many of Nietzsche writings, I have the impression he wrote in such a muzzy way because he never clearly understood what he was thinking. Therefore he couldn’t write clearly.
Through all his tangled thoughts and intuitions, there is one continuing large notion.
Nietzsche was a scholar of Classical Greece. He was deeply impressed with the myth of Dionysus. It became the matrix by which he judged his ideas. Did any new thought concur with his Dionysian template, or not? If not, then, that thought must be discarded.
There is a lot of proposing and discarding in all of Nietzsche’s writings. He was dogmatic about the myth of Dionysus as underpinning reality. He was less certain in his musings about how his Dionysian matrix could be used to sublimate human experience. By, “sublimate”, he meant, to divert normal sluggish consciousness into vigorous transcendent understanding.
Nietzsche was a dusty academic by nature, he was
a thunderous proselytizer for Superman only by way of thoughtful recommendation.
Wagner was taken with Nietzsche’s thoughtful recommendation. He wrote Thus Spake Zarathustra as a musical celebration of Nietzsche’s, Uebermensch, Overman, or Superman.
They eventually fell apart as friends, but both men continued to share an enthusiasm for bold, decisive, unapologetic action – for Dionysian vigor.
Wagner’s appreciation of Dionysus was passionate. With Nietzsche it was cerebral.
There are many things to consider about the Dionysian myth. For Nietzsche it boiled down to unblinking affirmation of the cyclic seasons of; spring/birth, summer/growth, autumn/decay, winter/death, followed by rebirth - endlessly and glorious repeated without end. Nietzsche never used the term, reincarnation, though for him, the idea of reincarnation is the foundational point of the Dionysian myth.
Nietzsche longed for a new theology of natural reality.
Nietzsche’s father was a Minister. His family thought
he would follow in his father’s profession. Then he walked away from God, though reluctantly. He never completely embraced his own atheism. His head was convinced. His heart wasn’t as sure.
If there was no God, then what? What hopeful possible reality could replace blessed Christion resurrection where deserving souls are plucked from this fallen world and taken to Heaven to enjoy life everlasting in Paradise.
Nietzsche’s answer is prosaic. Each year new life sprouts and old life decays and dies. What if those who die don’t go to heaven but are reborn here on Earth, as the vegetation does every spring, as does Dionysus” What if the same might be true of ideas as well as life? Why not boldly celebrate our Earthly life and deeds. Forget all that pie-in-the-sky, by-and-by stuff.
You’ll be reborn. You can always try again, rising further each time, even if you don’t recall your previous life. “God is dead”! Earth is all you have.
Nietzsche’s new theology of natural reality didn’t sell very well in his own time. Since then it has percolated through the culture, spawning the philosophy of Existentialism and all the many current notions that encourage selfish guilt-free behavior.
“Make your own rules. To thine own self be true”, and similar modern slogans derive from Nietzsche’s musings. It’s the sort of thinking that appealed to Hitler and still appeals to every other self-proclaimed living god, from rock stars to dictators - each, “selfish, self-centered, and self-indulgent”.
Nietzsche’s Kamph (struggle) was to bestow his liberating insight on mankind to pave the way for his Uebermensch, his Superman.
Nietzsche would be surprised at his success. Look around. There’s a Uebermensch on every corner. He might be a little unhappy though with the misbegotten shapes his ideas have morphed into.
Very few have actually read Nietzsche.
Now I know why.
Fredrich Nietzche, 1844-1900
Nietzshe died of complications following nervious breakdown.
No one was surprised.