Two Hands and Two Feet

I found it extremely humbling when Gandhi talks about the limits of man, "...man is so made by nature as to require him to restrict his movements as far as his hands and feet will take him" (25). It's interesting to think about, man started with only two legs with two feet and two arms with two hands. The rest of our existence has been built up around us by these physical traits combined with willpower and brainpower. These were the limits of man's "locomotive ambition" (26) as Gandhi puts it and man has been working ever since to override it. Since our creation man has built a society to live in, civilization has taken over. He has built with his hands and feet, buildings, highways, technology as well as the ideas of God, nationality and morality. None of these "inventions," I shall call them, existed before man existed and he created them.

Keep em' Busy

One of Nietzsche's main problems with society is that we don't let ourselves feel pain. We try to numb our senses, to distract ourselves from our feelings through what Nietzsche defines as "mechanical activity" (134). He describes how we fill our minds with this said activity and thus leave no room for consciousness, no room for suffering.

This made me think of death and how people grieve. When you go to a funeral or if someone has died, it's always seen as a good thing if the family stays busy for the next few months. Keeping busy, not thinking about the pain of the recent death. I think it's healthy to grieve for a period, but I also think it's healthy to do something, to get involved to take your mind off it. I guess I agree with Nietzsche to not let the mechanical activity take over and numb everything, overworking is not healthy and puts even more stress on the mind. But a little numbing can help, just to cope until an appropriate time. To which Nietzsche would respond with a lecture on societal pressure and our need to always be polite and appropriate. Oh well, I don't think I can win this one.

Nietzsche as a Moderate

For as extreme as Nietzsche likes to sound, I think most of it is for show. To command the attention of his audience and to promote debate and argument. I think at heart Nietzsche supports moderation. A comfortable middle ground between believing in God and believing in nothing. At first he seems like nihilism is the only way to go and that one must abandon all faith in abstract ideas. But now he seems to be revisiting these same abstract ideas and destructing them and trying to understand how they work within society One example is guilt, and how man only feels guilty because he believes in God and the godly standard.

Perhaps too, at the beginning Nietzsche did fully support nihilism. Now he is backtracking a little as he begins to understand his own ideas and change them a little to support new claims. He now seems to think a little faith is a good thing, but he cannot yet comprehend what type or what form this object of trust may take. This is one of the aspects (there are many) which frustrates me about Nietzsche. He is so vague. He offers ideas and solutions with no direction. Perhaps it is something we must contemplate individually and come up with within ourselves. Self understanding. Existentialism. The fact that humans recognize their world and cannot dismiss it for something spiritual. That humans take their concrete world and apply their own meaning to it from within themselves. That, perhaps, is Nietzsche's third item. But at this point even he has no idea.

Guilt-free if only God-free?

Nietzsche brings up the idea that the worship and acknowledgment of God, or higher being, causes mankind to feel guilty. That man sees Gods as "the ultimate antithesis of his own ineluctable animal instincts." With this man knows he can never stand up to the godly standards and that he is a mere mortal with an animal nature for which he will never escape. It is like a disability, this thinking, says Nietzsche because it only leaves man feeling guilty about his disposition, which he has limited control over. Instinct in its very definition means something that is inherent, not learned or practiced by choice.

But would we really be without guilt if there was no belief in God? This question seems unanswerable since we have no idea how life would be without the presence of God in society. But I think we would still have guilt. God is just the excuse we've made to blame this guilt on. The guilt come from within us, our own consciousness and self-awareness. We create the guilt because we have seen the consequences of our own actions. Even, without the godly standard from which we compare ourselves, I think the "pain" in our memories, like mnemotechnics, is enough to create a sense of guilt.

Mnemotechnics

"If something is to stay in the memory it must be burned in: only that which never ceases to hurt stays in the memory" (pg. 61)

This quote seemed a little unnervingly true for me. Society likes to cement the importance of good behavior by severely punishing those who display bad behavior. Of course, if a murderer doesn't get put into jail than, people will think it's alright to kill others. That is the mentality. It is instinctive, like Nietzsche says, to think like this. But when I read over the list of punishments Nietzsche describes from centuries back, I was shocked! It was so harsh! I guess if I saw someone stoned or trampled to death I would behave well too. It does work, I remember when I was a little kid and if I did something bad I was deprived of dessert and toys. The "pain" of this seemingly insignificant loss "burned" in my 5yr old mind for days and never again would I repeat my action. Well, that is until I forgot...but thus is the nature of childhood :)

Is Church a Poison to Man?

I grew up in a Catholic family and I was taught that faith was something special to work at, but to also enjoy. It was something you never questioned, it was just a part of life. Since then my thinking has changed a bit, but I still don't understand why Nietzsche labels the church as a "poison" (36). Here Nietzsche questions, "does the church today still have any necessary role to play?"

I answer: yes to some people it does.

Nietzsche asserts throughout his entire essay that mankind is too caught up in the clouds and needs to come back down to earth. In other words, man is too preoccupied with abstract concepts and should look instead at concrete forms of progress.

However, the Church is important to a large chunk of the modern human population, just as important as it was hundreds of years ago. I think the Church has the power to speed progress of society rather than as Nietzsche says "hinder it." With it's themes of good works, good faith, compassion, honor, etc, the church is laying the foundation for progress. The people need to understand their role in society, their significance in life. The church can help these people with this journey. With the assurance of a solid faith and a set of values, man can be free to progress in the concrete world. The church is what grounds man. Without it we would wander aimlessly, skeptical of our worth, our role in the world, and nothing would be accomplished. Whether a person is Catholic, Atheist, Jewish, Muslim or any other religion, their faith creates a firm base from which to confidently progress in society.

Something Funny

Reading Nietzsche's thoughts about God and spirituality made me think of a quote I heard awhile back.

"God is dead" - Nietzsche
"Nietzsche is dead" - God

I love this quote, it's hilarious. But it also makes you think. It forces you to realize the power of your own beliefs, to choose a side sort of. If you believe in God then it was God who killed Nietzsche. If you believe Nietzsche and his ideas, then the quote doesn't even matter, it's not important. I just like that it puts a nice perspective on things. We are all still mortal and can choose to how to view the world and our lives.

Rhyming Rives

The first thing I noticed when I listened to Rives's poems was how funny and entertaining they were. I loved "Mockingbird" where he goes off on who's voices he'd collect. Each example wittier than the next, from "...a postman making dinner plans" to mothers, daughter, artists, I even heard hooligans in there somewhere. I loved it. I thought it was so clever how perfectly each word flowed right into the next, so the rhyming was there, but it wasn't entirely noticeable. He really paid huge attention to the specific words he chose to describe his ideas and thoughts. The words made it a poem, not the subject. That was apparent as he easily turned even the most significant event into a poem. Like about the poetry slam for the deaf kids, or about his sister, or the internet. Who rights poetry about the internet? That doesn't seem traditional. But Rives does. And he does it with such ease and with such wit that even rhyming with the internet can sound deep, heartfelt, even romantic.

It wasn't like Rives was trying really hard to recite a poem. Rather he was sharing a story or an idea, which happened to sound as nice and rhythmical as a poem. He made it look so painfully easy!

My Personal TAO

Something small can be significant
Something large can be forgotten

We often lose what is small

in the busy bustle
in the day to day routine

Stop
Breathe

Enjoy what is around
Take notice of the details
Enjoy what maybe small

Gather the Weak to Conquer the Strong

TAO 78,

"Nothing in the world is soft and weak as water
But when attacking the hard and strong
Nothing can conquer so easily."

This piece of wisdom seemed especially vague and sort of hard to understand for me. I interpret it as if thinking of a waterfall or flood (to continue the metaphor). Just a few drops of water is pretty harmless, either it evaporates or easily flows away. But a waterfall, a collection of countless drops of water, carries an unmatchable force. Look at a flood. The water reaches every crevice, drowns everything in its path, washing away anything including homes, cars and even people. It is when these soft, weak streams of water band together to create something huge like a flood, that the damage is done, and the strong is conquered.

In life, even one person, seemingly weak against the crowd, can make a huge difference, beat the stronger force, by influencing others, by spreading word, by gathering together.