The Nietzsche's Birthday Stream Of Consciousness Thread
So it's Nietzsche's birthday.
The genealogy of morality, ubermensch, Tristan, Parsifal, Wagner, later German leaders, Siegfried, Zarathustra, blah blah, yada yada.
Nietzsche tried to explain the Christian tendency towards asceticism.
And he declared that God Is Dead.
He had things in common with Wagner. It's hard to think of Tristan, or Parsifal, or Siegfried without superman. Yet he was ambivalent about Wagner and his heroes.
The concept of the superman, not the one with his pants on the outside, is one who has thrown off the instinct to conform or be guided, and lives an independent, and philosophical life. Personally, I think he copied that idea from Imanuel Kant, but we don't like Kant do we, coz he was a misogynist dick, so we can let Nietzsche have that one.
Later German leaders, you know, the vertically challenged one with the silly moistache, just misconstrued the idea of the superman. Nietzsche would have been really miffed.
Cast aside the Nietzsche Wagner Little Man With Moustache triangle, for it is a myth.
Nietzsche saw "eternal recurrence" as a way of judging one's strength of character, and attitude towards life. Clearly we all need the attitude of one who has cast off the shackles of the herd mentality. Think for yourself. Do not conform. Just be jolly. That's more or less his take on eternal recurrence.
And he wrote "The Gay Science" which makes him Brighton's favourite philosopher.
Not because it was about being gay. Because it was about an occult experience. And occult experiences are big around here, believe me. You can't buy a newspaper without having one. Especially if it's The Argus, which can seem a bit occult sometimes.
Anyway, happy birthday, Friedrich.
Even though you are, of course, dead. So ... so much for superman and eternal recurrence!