Dregs of Yore

Book V, We Fearless Ones, The Joyful Wisdom “Among the Europeans of to-day there are not lacking those who may call themselves homeless ones in a way which is at once a distinction and an honour; it is by them that my secret wisdom and gaya scienza is expressly to be laid to heart. For their lot is hard, their hope uncertain; it is a clever feat to devise consolation for them. But what good does it do! We children of the future, how could we be at home in the present?” It would be men of honour indeed, in Nietzsche’s view, who are not afraid to brush off the “fixed truths” that others pull into their embrace. While the mediocre men make homes out of the icy raft of rationality and futuristic thinking that floats aimlessly on the same sea of Chaos that engulfed the structures of meaning that Man’s reason tore down, the homeless ones would not hesitate to look at the ruins of the ransacked city in an attempt to stave off guilt and misery, and would rather contemplate the need for erectin...

 Book V, We Fearless Ones, The Joyful Wisdom “It is said with good reason that convictions have no civic rights in the domain of science: it is only when a conviction voluntarily condescends to the modesty of an hypothesis, a preliminary standpoint for experiment, or a regulative fiction, that its access to the realm of knowledge, and a certain value therein, can be conceded,—always, however, with the restriction that it must remain under police supervision, under the police of our distrust.—Regarded more accurately, however, does not this imply that only when a conviction ceases to be a conviction can it obtain admission into science? Does not the discipline of the scientific spirit just commence when one no longer harbours any conviction?” In the era of science and objective thought, doubt occupies a higher rung of our hierarchy of values than belief. Perhaps this is not just the way of the times we live in, but has been the case for centuries, that the skeptic was accorded more ...

Book IV, The Joyful Wisdom “How many men are there who know how to observe? And among the few who do know,—how many observe themselves? "Everyone is furthest from himself"—all the "triers of the reins" know that to their discomfort; and the saying, "Know thyself," in the mouth of a God and spoken to man, is almost a mockery.” When one puts oneself in one’s own scrutiny, it comes into one’s knowledge how little one actually knows about oneself. Observing oneself as a third person, especially one’s actions and inactions in times of chaos is akin to being punched in the stomach, for it is then that one comes face to face with one’s shadow. One would fain avoid it, and many men do for the realisation that one embodies many devils that take over one’s kinder impulses from time to time, is a harsh one. Even more men are less specific in their criticism of oneself: the danger of a self-deprecating approach is that it equates all your misdeeds. The intent behind o...

Book IV, The Joyful Wisdom “Is it to your advantage to be above all compassionate? And is it to the advantage of the sufferers when you are so?” We live in times where it is mandatory to suffer along with the suffering; any less simply gives you admission into the ranks of monsters. Compassion is the fashionable “virtue” of our times, and it is demanded that you should seek out victims in every crowd, to unload upon them the full force of your compassion and wrath upon the rest for not suffering with them. Indeed, the compassionate often get so swayed that they deem it more worth their while to join the ranks of victims, than to uplift them out of their victimhood. “That from which we suffer most profoundly and personally is almost incomprehensible and inaccessible to everyone else: in this matter we are hidden from our neighbour even when he eats at the same table with us. Everywhere, however, where we are noticed as sufferers, our suffering is interpreted in a shallow way; it belongs...

 Book III, The Joyful Wisdom “Have you ever heard of the madman who on a bright morning lighted a lantern and ran to the market-place calling out unceasingly: "I seek God! I seek God!"—As there were many people standing about who did not believe in God, he caused a great deal of amusement.”  In the era of the objective man, anyone who dares to view the world somewhat subjectively is immediately looked upon with disdain. In a world where everyone is quick to renounce their faith in the divine (for doing so is almost regarded as an initiation ritual to gain membership into the ranks of intellectuals), one who seeks God is, as Nietzsche amusedly pointed out, a madman. The arguments given by the people to this madman who searches frantically for God are not too far off from the ones given by my atheist comrades. Perhaps, around three to four years ago, I too would have given some of these conceited arguments.  “Why! is he lost? said one. Has he strayed away like a child? said...

 Book IV, The Joyful Wisdom “Something now appears to thee as an error which thou formerly lovedst as a truth, or as a probability: thou pushest it from thee and imaginest that thy reason has there gained a victory.” It happens so often that we look back on our past selves and laugh on our follies and frivolities, as if we are any different now! It is true we are different in one sense: what once appeared sacred truth to us is now a fool’s mumblings, but it is also untrue in another that our wit and reason continues to reassert itself like it did back then. We like to win, be it battles or arguments, against a country or ourselves. We know not what we stand for, but the list of things we stand against is on the tips of our tongues. We love to renounce: faith like the Atheists, materialistic pursuits like the Ascetics, emotional expression like the Stoics, objectivity like the Romantics, property like the Marxists, meaning like the Nihilists, meaninglessness like the Utilitarians, f...