Friedrich Nietzsche and the Philosophy of Manic Depression
The Immaculate Perception, Thus Spake Zarathustra
e-Published by Ion Saliu, Immaculate Perfectionist At-Large
WOULD you go into isolation, my brother? Would you seek the way to yourself? Tarry yet a little and hear me.
"He who seeks may easily get lost himself. All isolation is wrong": so say the herd.
And long did you belong to the herd.
The voice of the herd will still echo in you. And when you say,
"I have no longer a conscience in common with you,"
then will it be a plaint and a pain.
Lo, that pain itself did the same conscience produce; and the last gleam of that conscience still glows on your affliction.
But you would go the way of your affliction, which is the way to yourself? Then show me your authority and the strength to do so!
Are you a new strength and a new authority? A first motion? A self-rolling wheel? Can you also compel stars to revolve around you?
Alas! there is so much lusting for loftiness! There are so many convulsions of the ambitions! Show me that you are not a lusting and ambitious one!
Alas! there are so many great thoughts that do nothing more than thebellows: they inflate, and make emptier than ever.
Free, do you call yourself? Your ruling thought would I hear of, and not that you have escaped from a yoke.
Are you one entitled to escape from a yoke? Many a one has cast away his final worth when he has cast away his servitude.
Free from what? What do that matter to Zarathustra! Clearly, however, shall your eye show to me: free for what?
Can you give to yourself your bad and your good, and set up your will as a law over you?
Can you be judge for yourself, and avenger of your law
Terrible is aloneness with the judge and avenger of one's own law.
Thus is a star projected into desert space, and into the icy breath of aloneness.
To-day suffer you still from the multitude, you individual;
to-day have you still your courage unabated, and your hopes.
But one day will the solitude weary you; one day will your pride
yield, and your courage quail. You will one day cry:
"I am alone!"
One day will you see no longer your loftiness, and see too closely your lowliness; your sublimity itself will frighten you as a phantom.
You will one day cry:
"All is false!"
There are feelings which seek to slay the lonesome one; if they do not succeed, then must they themselves die!
But are you capable of it- to be a murderer?
Have you ever known, my brother, the word "disdain"? And the anguish of your justice in being just to those that disdain you?
You force many to think differently about you; that, charge they heavily to your account. You came nigh to them, and yet went past: for that they never forgive you.
You go beyond them: but the higher you rise, the smaller do the eye of envy see you.
Most of all, however, is the flying one hated.
"How could you be just to me!"- must you say-
"I choose your injustice as my allotted portion.
Injustice and filth cast they at the lonesome one: but, my brother, if you would be a star, you must shine for them none the less on that account!
And be on your guard against the good and just! They would fain crucify those who devise their own virtue- they hate the lonesome ones.
Be on your guard, also, against holy simplicity! All is unholy to it that is not simple; fain, likewise, would it play with the fire- of the fagot and stake.
And be on your guard, also, against the assaults of your love! Too readily do the recluse reach his hand to any one who meets him.
To many a one may you not give your hand, but only your paw; and I wish your paw also to have claws.
But the worst enemy you can meet, will you yourself always be; you waylay yourself in caverns and forests.
You lonesome one, you go the way to yourself! And past yourself and your seven devils lead your way!
A heretic will you be to yourself, and a wizard and a soothsayer, and a fool, and a doubter, and a reprobate, and a villain.
Ready must you be to burn yourself in your own flame; you become new if you have not first become ashes!
You lonesome one, you go the way of the creating one: a God will you create for yourself out of your seven devils!
You lonesome one, you go the way of the loving one: you love yourself, and on that account despise you yourself, as only the loving ones despise.
To create, desires the loving one, because he despises! What knows he of love who has not been obliged to despise just what he loved!
With your love, go into your isolation, my brother, and with your creating; and late only will justice limp after you.
With my tears, go into your isolation, my brother. I love him who seeks to create beyond himself, and thus succumbs.-
Thus spoke Zarathustra.
"Thus spoke Zarathustra" (1883)
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)
There are young philosophers in all societies who start serious reasoning via admiration - and imitation - of Nietzsche. Friedrich Nietzsche himself started as a quasi-pathological case of Stoicism. He ended up in a more grave condition. This brings to the forefront Jung's impossible promise: “Show me who is sane, and I shall cure him for you!” Just think for a moment of quasi-pathological acts that achieved high fame: Nietzsche, Van Gogh, Kafka...
It sounds like a contradiction in terms: Philosophy and dementia, or demented philosophy. Nietzsche's sentences read more closely to religion than philosophy. All religious texts are full of demented ideas, including the advocacy of murder.
Lest we forget that Nietzsche's manic depression founded the horrible cruelty of Nazism. Nietzsche's philosophy became the religion of the Nazis, especially the SS. Nietzsche's demented religion has greatly influenced violent fanaticism, especially Islamic extremists who find a divine reason in murder and martyrdom.
Quotations of disturbing philosophy that should be fought against to the limit:
“Lo, that pain itself did the same conscience produce; and the last gleam of that conscience still glows on your affliction.”
“There are feelings which seek to slay the lonesome one; if they do not succeed, then must they themselves die!”
“But are you capable of it - to be a murderer?”
“And be on your guard against the good and just! They would fain crucify those who devise their own virtue- they hate the lonesome ones.
Be on your guard, also, against holy simplicity! All is unholy to it that is not simple; fain, likewise, would it play with the fire- of the fagot and stake.
And be on your guard, also, against the assaults of your love! Too readily do the recluse reach his hand to anyone who meets him.”
“Ready must you be to burn yourself in your own flame; you become new if you have not first become ashes!
You lonesome one, you go the way of the creating one: a God will you create for yourself out of your seven devils!”
My Nietzsche experience as a youngster has, actually, bright tones. I vividly remember an intellectual joke active in my life as a college student. Not many people get this joke. One must be a Romanian intellectual with good knowledge of Old Romanian history and language. The joke can't be translated into any other language.
The first reference to Nietzsche in the Romanian culture appears in these folkloric verses:
The lirics appear in several old popular songs.
The joke relies on the pronunciation of 'Nietzsche'. In the Old Romanian language, Nietzsche is pronounced very similarly to nice (like nitché in English): 'neither' and 'nor' (in English, that is). That would lead to a non-humorous English translation like:
”Neither home, nor table,
Other than that joke, I found one good thing that Nietzsche advanced. He discovered this law of survival:
What does not kill me makes me stronger.
My Daughter, Aloneness, and Nietzsche
“Nietzsche casa, Nietzsche masa,
Nietzsche dulce giupaneasa.”
Nor sweet sweetheart.”
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