Helllllooooo Otterites!
Robert here with Robert Rendsday. Yep. Martin gave me an alternate name for my day because he thinks I have some small skill at shredding the BS arguments that weak-minded, empty-headed pseudo philosophers come up with. Also once in a while I do OK at tackling the big guys.
Which brings us back to Freddy Nietzsche. We did a couple of episodes that covered old Fred some time back. Really good stuff.
There’s a lot that’s worth reading when it comes to Nietzsche’s work, even if it’s only to better understand how his work was perverted and appropriated by the Nazis. Or perhaps it wasn’t perverted so much as taken to the logical conclusion if you follow it to the end.
I see the attractiveness in many ways of Fred’s concept of Will to Power when taken to mean how Marty likes to interpret it. This phrase from Marty’s post is great:
“A radical individualism geared toward growth, achievement and making the most of one’s abilities.”
Martin Monday – 10/04/2021
What’s not to like about man reaching his full potential? There’s nothing at all wrong with that.
Except one thing. And it’s even a thing that Martin mentions in the above post: CONTEXT.
As we so often say on the show, Context is King. And Context is also what is missing from this approach to life. What context is that you ask?
Truth.
This is my main problem with Fred. He believed in no absolute truth, except that the individual gets to decide what is true for himself as Marty noted in his post. Of course, this is as oxymoronic as “Only the Sith believe in absolutes, Anakin!” So, there’s one absolute truth. Unless you personally reject that of course.
This is not to say that Fred’s ideas about truth are totally wrong. Better to say that each person’s perception of truth is what he chooses. That statement I would say is correct. Being imperfect, it’s not possible to perfectly discern what is absolutely True. Not that I don’t mean truths like water boils at 100 degrees Celsius (212 degrees Fahrenheit). But did you know even that is not absolute? Minute variations in that temperature happen depending on atmospheric conditions and especially elevation. So sometimes our facts aren’t always as true as we believe them to be.
Francis and I believe there is an absolute Truth. First and foremost, we would say that Jesus Christ is the way, the truth and the light. We distinctly and specifically believe in God. Not a god. THE God. The Creator. The Uncaused Cause of the Universe. From that absolute truth, other things logically must follow. If you’ve read and listened to us enough, you know this by now. While we don’t shove that belief down your throats, it should be obvious that this belief permeates and drives our Values, Beliefs and our Philosophy of Life.
The idea that I decide what is true for me, and you can decide what is true for you, totally rejects the idea of any kind of truth. If anything and everything can and is true, then nothing is true. Fred seems to think that anything other than total self-interest and the pursuit of what makes you happy is weak minded. Marty sums up this idea really well:
Values like equality of outcomes, sharing with others, charity, these are the values of the weak, who seek revenge on those whom they feel have wronged them. Envy, covetousness, these were the failings of the herd.
Martin Monday – 10/04/2021
I agree equality of outcomes is a ridiculous thing to strive for. Impossible on its face and totally unworkable in any real fashion. Perhaps that should be a post for next week. I also agree that envy and covetousness are failings, of individuals as well as the herd. Note that like all who can’t see their own illogical fallacies, Fred posits these sorts of ideas as truth for you to accept. Period. Well, using Fred’s own rules, I reject these ideas Marty references in the above quote as lies. They are not my truth.
What I especially reject is the idea that sharing and charity are the values of the weak. A weak person can have these values, sure. So can a strong person. Just as a weak person can have Fred’s values. In fact, I say Fred’s position is the weakest of all. He argues not for strength, but for weakness. Ultimately, he stands alone, never in unity with another, because no two people will believe the sames things as true. No two people who follow Fred’s ideals can ever truly be friends. Acquaintances? Sure. Friends? No. Brothers? Hell no!
The very existence of Snakes and Otters is a rejection of Nietzschean ideals. We are a brotherhood. We don’t have exactly the same beliefs, but there is no doubt these men are my brothers in all but blood. There is no doubt we would sacrifice for each other if necessary. Help one another when asked and even before it’s asked. Nothing great can ever be built alone. Not even the writer or the artist creates without others. There is always an influence, good and bad. There is always opinions to be weighed and evaluated. There are always concerns over what will be accepted or rejected.
It is only through Solidarity that mankind has achieved all the great things in history. Unfortunately, it’s also true that the worst things have been achieved with some form of Solidarity. In the case of the good, we work together for something that serves something greater than ourselves. In the case of the bad, we work together against something we fear. Of course I circle back to Fred’s personal truth schtick here. Who says what is good and who says what is bad?
The answer to that can be seen in Soviet Russia, Nazi Germany and Communist China. A small number of men who have power over millions and use that power to destroy what they fear. I could also come up with examples of institutions generally regarded as good that have done bad things, but these guys? They top the list in terms of scale, terror and pure evil. They industrialized murder and called it good.
These are the ultimate destinations of any philosophy that rejects a universal truth of any kind, a moral standard that is true for all times and all places, regardless of circumstances. When I get to choose what’s true, so do you. And so does the totalitarian on the left or the right. So does the local bully on the corner. So does the corrupt politician. So does the televangelist selling pablum on TV. So does the group of activists who shut down speech on campus that they don’t like.
I close with what I said on the show:
Nietzsche: God is dead.
God: Nietzsche is dead.
Winner: God.
