Series
Some thoughts on Friedrich
Nietzsche,
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by Carl Baydala
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Friedrich Nietzsche
1844 - 1900
Carl Baydala
1949 -
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" One should not go into churches if
one wishes to breathe pure air " - Friedrich Nietzsche,
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from " Beyond Good and Evil "
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I have been studying Friedrich Nietzsche quite a bit lately since philosophy is one of my interests right now. I even have a segment called The Bachelor Philosophers which forms part of my blog. Nietzsche would be a candidate for this bachelor series since he was a bachelor.
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But, the man is interesting for other reasons too. Like Schopenhauer, another bachelor that I read about, there was a girl in his life that left him rather shaken up. I think the case of Schopenhauer might be more severe, however. Friedrich seems to have his act a little more together in the girl department. Schopenhauer became a real misogynist as everybody knows. But, both females were younger than both men and that is part of the story of course. And, so it was in my life as well. The girl who I identify in my writings was somewhat younger as well. So, as males we all have a female that is part of our lives, yet who is not part of our lives. They are just ' impacts ' on our lives.
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Schopenhauer became a great pessimist and critic of society. But, he is not just only noted for his pessimism and rejection by a young woman. He has other things going for him. He thinks that man is propelled by will and that man is a never satisfied creature. And, this feature of man necessarily expresses itself in man's behavior. Schopenhauer was also an atheist.
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Nietzsche was a great follower of the ideas of Schopenhauer and was also an atheist. And, these are the ties that bind us all together. We are all atheists and critics of the system. And, we are all bachelors with a bit of history behind us as concerns the opposite sex.
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But, these are famous philosophers and Carl Baydala is not a famous philosopher. But, he is interested in philosophy and in men like Schopenhauer and Nietzsche because he can relate to the similarities in their lives and those of his own.
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Nietzsche became a university professor at the tender age of 24, but his career was short lived, at at age 34 his life changed. And, so it was with me. My life changed at 34 as well. Both Nietzsche and myself were on new directions in our lives. Something abrupt happened in our lives and our lives changed and would never be the same.
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Nietzsche was a sickly man all of his life and that is what caused things to change for him. I too have a physical condition that can be painful and certainly was in my younger days. But, Nietzsche's pain and physical condition was to be more severe and eventually it would kill him at age 56. Thankfully, I am still going at 60. But, there is a point here about Nietzsche and myself. The man never gave up in spite of the difficulties in his life. He turned his pain and condition into a plus. He wrote many important pieces of literature that are with us today and he offered us some new insights, insights, for example, that would lead to the new study of existentialism and he would provide help to the psychologists as well. Sigmund Freud and many others studied the man and learned from him. Nietzsche proclaimed the Death of God and said that Christianity was a bad religion because it made man weak. He was a great critic of Christianity as I myself have occasion to be. There really is something wrong with Christianity, yet it persists. Why does it persist when it does not belong? That is my question and not Friedrich Nietzsche's.
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But, the death of God and the meaninglessness of Christianity were opportunities for man Nietzsche proclaimed. This was an opportunity for man to reinvent himself so to speak. You may have heard of the term nihilism. Well, that term is very often associated with Nietzsche and his writings. Things are not all totally meaningless according to Nietzsche, if you follow the man's history and what he taught and believed in. He really was forming a new philosophical way to look at life and to deal with it. If man investigates himself he will find purpose in life, but it is not an easy task of course. Look at Nietzsche's life of pain and consider how he dealt with it. He found a way out of the morass. So, is that not the lesson that we learn from Nietzsche? That there really is hope if one just applies himself and fits himself into his environment. I think that is a positive message personally, and it only proves that one does not need religion or something like Christianity to make it all come together.
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Nietzsche's last ten years were lived in a state of insanity. Yet, he was very productive in his writings just before he could not function anymore. If you read his biography you might think that the whole thing was a lead up to this state of insanity. The disease that he contracted as a young man in a brothel is the reason given for his insanity. So, do you think that Carl Baydala is insane or on the road to being insane after all is said and done? In his latter years Nietzsche thought he was a god. Sometimes I think I am a god of sorts when I talk about Jesus and the gods and all of the rest. I wonder if I am insane like the great man himself. I certainly can relate to these gods as providing meaning for me that is for sure. But, that was the big message coming out of Nietzsche I think. We can all be gods and there is no reason why we cannot be. After all, if God is dead like Nietzsche is proclaiming then doesn't it make sense to create something like a god of your own making to make it all come together for you - and to provide meaning for life? Isn't that what we are all trying to do? We are all existentialists in this light I suppose. Let us just hope that the cost of doing business is not some form of insanity as that might not be worth the cost. I do think that we can create these gods though and it makes perfectly good sense to me to do so. And, in fact, I have done so - with no serious effects so far that I am personally aware of.
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Reference:
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N.B. some interesting views on women and love, etc.
are found in chapter four of his aphorisms above.
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Above post borrowed from Dear Courier Diary
September 28, 2009
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