LIFE WISDOM
Nine Stories Inspired by Friedrich Nietzsche’s Aphorisms
We are in times like these suffering from and struggling with a moral deficiency on the highest political level. Can we accept all these lies, all this manipulation by political leaders who show too many signs of resemblance with the “Führer” Adolf Hitler, a single man who through lies and mass manipulation led the world to the holocaust and to a world-wide disaster?
1. Making them wait
Published on July 31, 2019 in Blue Insights
Today I found a small book in the house, and I made up my mind to read it.
The book was thin, only 55 pages, but very dense in thoughts.
The book’s author is Friedrich Nietzsche, and the title is Aphorisms on Love and Hate.
The dark cover reflects what I knew from earlier and what ideas I have on this German philosopher who lived from 1844 to 1900.
Friedrich Nietzsche held a pessimistic view on modern society and culture, and his thoughts on “Übermensch” have falsely been taken as arguments for the Nazi ideology.
I’ve not been a big fan of Nietzsche, but I admit I felt little attracted by his philosophy at the time when I studied the French existentialists.
Although Nietzsche has famously been misrepresented as a predecessor to Nazism, he criticized anti-Semitism, pan-Germanism and, to a lesser extent, nationalism.
…
His views stand against the concept of popular culture. He believed the press and mass culture led to conformity and brought about mediocrity. Nietzsche saw a lack of intellectual progress, leading to the decline of the human species. According to Nietzsche, individuals needed to overcome this form of mass culture. He believed some people were able to become superior individuals through the use of will power. By rising above mass culture, society would produce higher, brighter and healthier human beings. (Wikipedia)
I think that Nietzsche in many ways formulates provoking truths about human behavior, and in today’s world I find in particular this quote interesting and appropriate:
“Making them wait. A sure way to provoke people and to put evil thoughts into their heads is to make them wait a long time. This gives rise to immorality.”
The strategy to make people wait and to get power over people through making people waiting is often seen today. To keep them waiting is a well-known ruling technique for gaining power over people. Together with the absence of truth in communication, this technique is a way of seducing and manipulating people that often proves to be successful.
Speaking the truth instead of lying and practicing honesty in the political discourse is today absent in some powerful leaders. The world suffers and struggles in times like these with a moral deficiency at the highest political level.
The world community should not accept all these lies, all this manipulation from political leaders who promise and lie to their people.
2. Marriage as a Long Conversation
Published on July 31, 2019 in Poetry in Prose
We talk
and we get to know each other
better than ever
.
We talk
and we become
friends forever
Marriage as a long conversation. When entering a marriage, one should ask the question; do you think you will be able to have good conversations with this woman right into old age? Everything else in marriage is transitory, but most of the time in interaction is spent in conversation. (Friedrich Nietzsche: Aphorisms on Love and Hate)
3. Women’s Friendship
Published on July 31, 2019 in Good Morning Insights
Women can very well enter into a friendship with a man, but to maintain it — a little physical antipathy must help out. (Friedrich Nietzsche: Aphorisms on Love and Hate)
Being
my best friend’s
best friend
is wonderful
.
As long as
we don’t begin to love
and start loosing
each other
.
The spark of love
can come between us
and erase
our friendship
4. Friendship and Marriage
Published on July 31, 2019 in Poetry in Prose
Friendship is different from love
and yet related
Love is different from friendship
and sometimes
almost identical
I love you
as my best friend
too
Friendship and marriage. The best friend will probably get the best wife, because a good marriage is based on a talent for friendship.
5. Letting Oneself Be Loved
Published on July 31, 2019 in Poetry in Prose
What is better — to love or to be loved?
Is it the eternal question — to give or to get?
“Letting oneself be loved. Because one of the two loving people is usually the lover, the other the beloved, the belief has arisen that in every love affair the amount of love is constant: the more of it one of the two grabs to himself, the less remains for the other person.”
6. Too Close: A Human Being’s Soul
Published on July 31, 2019 in Blue Insights
“Too close. If we live in too close proximity to a person, it is as if we kept touching a good etching with our bare fingers; one day we have a poor, dirty paper in our hands and nothing more. A human being’s soul is likewise worn down by continual touching;” (Friedrich Nietzsche)
We’re dreaming, we’re longing for proximity, we’re doing almost anything in order to be near another human being.
We are humans, we need love and what we consider to be the features of love.
We need love.
The other is our beloved one.
Do we often enough take in consideration the needs of the other one?
The needs of being close to herself, alone with herself?
Do we remember to cultivate the aloneness without becoming slave of the togetherness?
7. Contempt for People
Published on July 31, 2019 in Good Morning Insights
Philosophers who lived more than 150 years ago do not necessarily have to be perceived as outdated today. One of them is Friedrich Nietzsche, whose 55-page thin book Aphorisms on Love and Hate is a real treasure trove.
Friedrich Nietzsche held a pessimistic view on modern society and culture, and his thoughts on “Übermensch” have falsely been taken as arguments for the Nazi ideology.
I’ve not been a big fan of Nietzsche, but I admit I felt little attracted by his philosophy at the time when I studied the French existentialists.
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) was a German philosopher who wrote a large number of philosophical works. The human will is a key element in Nietzsche’s philosophy, but he also became known for his fierce critique of Christianity and its worldview.
The will to power From Nietzsche’s view of humanity, the successful and meaningful life is characterized by a person expressing the will to power to the highest possible degree. The will to power is, according to Nietzsche, a fundamental drive of all living beings, which gives them the urge to unfold and shape the world they live in to suit their needs. This applies in particular to man, who has both a particularly great urge to shape the world, and at the same time the abilities needed to do so. The good life is thus about taking full control of one’s existence, and shaping the outside world so that it suits one’s wishes and needs. (Source: https://www.studienett.no/eksistensialisme/friedrich-nietzsche)
I think that Nietzsche in many ways formulates provoking truths about human behavior, and in today’s world I find in particular this quote interesting and appropriate:
As one of many aphorisms that relates well to our time, I found this one inspiring.
Contempt for people. The least ambiguous sign of a disdain for people is this: that one tolerates everyone else only as a means to his ends, or not at all.
I am not surprised to see how this way of manipulating people many times turns out to be successful.
Speaking truth instead of lies and practicing honesty in the political discourse is today very often absent.
We are in times like these suffering from and struggling with the moral deficiency on the highest political level.
Can we accept all these lies, all this manipulation by political leaders who show too many signs of resemblance with the “Führer” Adolf Hitler, a single man who through lies and mass manipulation led the world to the holocaust and to a world-wide disaster we still have to recover from?
8. The Importance of a Mother
Published on July 31, 2019 in Blue Insights
She was always there for us
She never raised her voice
She never yelled at us
She told us
To do to others
As we would like them to do to us
.
For so many years
she was the fixed point
in my life
I knew what I was standing on
And standing on this solid ground
I managed to find my directions
A lesson for all men — and women
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) lived many years before the awareness of gender equality increased and began to be discussed publicly.
Today we know that the importance of a mother as well as the importance of a father is crucial to how life develops for boys and girls in phases as they grow and become young men and young women, who in turn become fathers and mothers.
We also know that both the father and the mother through the parents’ behavior and roles have a great impact on the sons and daughters.
When we see young ‘rebels’ attack and tear down what is in their way, we can in many cases assume that there is a dysfunctional father or mother — or both — in their lives.
Despite this, I think Nietzsche in his era was quite clear-sighted, although his insight into the case did not cover all aspects.
From the mother. Everyone carries within him an image of woman that he gets from his mother; that determines whether he will honor women in general, or despise them, or be generally indifferent to them.
9. Love and Hate
Published on August 1, 2019 in Live Your Life On Purpose
When cleaning our son’s room, who this morning departed for a summer camp, I found a small book on his desk, Aphorisms on Love and Hate, by Friedrich Nietzsche.
Our son from time to time buys books and has now a little collection, mostly philosophical topics, I believe.
Sometimes he asks me to read one of his books, so now made up my mind to pick up this 55 pages small book.
The dark cover reflects what I knew from earlier and what ideas I have on this German philosopher who lived from 1844 to 1900.
Friedrich Nietzsche held a pessimistic view on modern society and culture, and his thoughts on “Übermensch” have falsely been taken as arguments for the Nazi ideology.
Friedrich Nietzsche was a German philosopher and philologist. He is still as controversial as he is famous. This is due both to the fact that his philosophy can be interpreted in different ways, and that his attitude to many aspects of modern philosophy is extremely critical. Nietzsche has given strong impulses to French philosophers such as Michel Foucault and Jacques Derrida and is often regarded as one of the ancestors of postmodernism. The ripple effects of Nietzsche’s works also go far beyond the professional philosophy; cultural life, with authors such as August Strindberg and Henrik Ibsen, was also influenced. (Source: SNL, Store norske leksikon)
I’ve many times thought that maybe Friedrich Nietzsche is not the best choice for a young man to read.
When I caught sight of this quote at the beginning of the book, I had to start to think: “We must learn to love” - Yes! Absolutely! That’s what LIFE is about.
That’ what the world needs now. And at all times!
But the second statement: “hatred must be learned and nurtured”!
I have difficulties to understand the meaning of this, seen through the eyes of a 20th and 21st-century human who has clearly in mind the atrocities mankind are able to do towards each other in a never-ending number of wars and conflicts through the 20. century.
This quote lacks a dimension which is indispensable for everyone who wants to say something wise about humans, humanity and human progress, both materially and ethically speaking.
We cannot today, in the world we live in, accept that a goal for humans can be “to become a proficient hater”.
We are in times like these already suffering and struggling more than enough with the moral deficiency on the highest political level.
Can we accept all these lies, all this manipulation by political leaders who show too many signs of resemblance with the Führer of Nietzsche’s country of birth, a single man who through lies and mass manipulation led the world to the holocaust and to a world-wide disaster we still have to recover from?
Links to all nine stories inspired by Friedrich Nietzsche’s aphorisms:
Øivind H. Solheim is a novel author and a nature photographer from Norway who loves writing fiction, poetry, essays, and articles helping others understand life, other humans, and themselves. He has published six novels, two non-fiction books, and a poetry book.
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