20 January 2008

I delve into this series on morality because I have but touched upon this subject in prior blogs and when I have discussed the subject, I always circle back to truth, potentiality, and the twin shackles: illusion and myth. In each context, I always cite Nietzsche and I would not have it any other way. And so again, to discuss morality, I must - at least briefly - also invoke that brilliant mind, for no one wrote better on the topic than did Nietzsche.

Morality is a salient topic for Hyphenation, especially because it affects the spheres of will-power-truth-progress and of herd mentality-illusion-deception-degeneration. Precisely because of these spheres, Nietzsche is most apropos. Ultimately, he is truth, he is will, he is debunker of morality and the myth, illusion, and the false that morality entails. And this...this is the strongest truth...

In Beyond Good and Evil, Nietzsche states:

"To recognize truth as a condition of life - that certainly means resisting accustomed value feelings in a dangerous way; and a philosophy that risks this would by that token alone place itself beyond good and evil" (Beyond Good and Evil, "On the Prejudices of Philosophers," 4).

Of course, this is his recurring clarion call to philosophers as he himself declares:

"One knows my demand of philosophers that they place themselves beyond good and evil - that they have the illusion of moral judgment beneath them" (Twilight of the Idols, "The 'Improvers' of Mankind," I).

Indeed, he has a very specific ideal of the true philosopher. By positing themselves beyond good and evil and above morality, they can lead and legislate to overcome the past effectively for the success of a future:

"Genuine philosophers, however, are commanders and legislators: they say, 'thus it shall be!' They first determine the Whither and For What of man, and in so doing have at their disposal the preliminary labor of all philosophical laborers, all who have overcome the past. With a creative hand they reach for the future, and all that is and has been becomes for them, an instrument, a hammer. Their 'knowing' is creating, their creating is a legislation, their will to truth is - will to power" (Beyond Good and Evil, "We Scholars," 211).

More importantly, the genuine philosopher will lead by example against morality, the source of a degenerating herd mentality so omnipresently around him:

"Morality in Europe today is herd animal morality [...] it says stubbornly and inexorably, 'I am morality itself, and nothing besides is morality' " (ibid, "Natural History of Morals," 202).

Not only is this morality a herd mentality, but also a totalitarian tyranny. It declares itself as the one and only morality, leaving no breadth, no scope, for any other. It is a dangerous falsity that weakens man and leads to his overall degeneration, suffocating any possibility of individuality and more importantly, of true greatness:

"Every morality is...a bit of tyranny against 'nature'; aslo against 'reason' " (ibid, 188).

"More and more it seems to me that the philosopher, being of necessity a man of tomorrow...had to find himself, in contradiction to his today: his enemy was ever the ideal of today [...] Today the taste of the time and the virtue of the time weakens and thins down the will; nothing is as timely as weakness of the will" (ibid, "We Scholars," 212).

"Today, conversely, when only the herd animal receives and dispenses honors in Europe, when 'equality of rights' could all too easily be changed into equality in violating rights - I mean, into a common war on all that is rare, strange, privileged, the higher man, the higher soul, the higher duty, the higher responsibility, and the abundance of creative power and masterfulness - today the concept of greatness entails...wanting to be by oneself...different, standing alone and having to live independently" (ibid).

" 'He shall be greatest who can be loneliest, the most concealed, the most deviant, the human being beyond good and evil, the master of his virtues, he that is overrich in will. Precisely this shall be called greatness: being capable of being as manifold as whole, as ample as full' " (ibid).

In summation then, morality leads to a totalitarian herd mentality away from greatness, independence, and individuality, thus signaling all steps towards degeneration. If this is not enough to rise above morality and beyond 'good and evil', Nietzsche furnishes us with more reason to do so by debunking morality altogether:

"...there are no moral facts whatever. Moral judgment...believes in realities which do not exist. Morality is...more precisely a misinterpretation. Moral judgment belongs...to a level of ignorance at which...the distinction between the real and the imaginary, is lacking: so that at such a level 'truth' denotes nothing but things which we today call 'imaginings'. To this extent moral judgment...never contains anything but nonsense" (Twilight of the Idols, "The 'Improvers' of Mankind," I).

In this manner, he offers us a compelling challenge to re-evaluate our reality and to re-purpose ourselves, our actions, behaviors, and thoughts in it. This is no small task, but a necessary and critical one. Furthermore, by so doing, we release ourselves from the tyranny of myth, illusion, and falsity and fly to the light of truth. And truth, truth is Nietzsche's bailiwick:

"Perhaps nobody yet has been truthful enough about what 'truthfulness' is" (Beyond Good and Evil, "Epigrams and Interludes," 177).

"...from time immemorial we are - accustomed to lying" (ibid, "Natural History of Morals," 192).

Perhaps the problem with truth is the entrapment we fall prey to in the seduction of words. For this, Nietzsche reiterates to us, "we really ought to free ourselves from the seduction of words!" (ibid, "On the Prejudices of Philosophers," 16).