top of page
Writer's pictureMichael Hawes

A Texan Explains Nietzsche


Come out of your churches

I would talk with you

Come out of your synagogues

I will ask you something

Come out of your mosques

I will tell you something

Leave your saffron robes

That we may stand naked

Come out of your secret societies

Show yourselves now

Come out of your offices

That I might speak freely

Relax your families

Sit apart from your education

Pause in your traditions

Cast away your reckonings

Look beyond your flags

Forget your promises

Here on the plain ground

For the moment being

Allow me to prompt

Your imaginations

For Sophia's sake

Look about you

Notice each other

With clear eyes

And clean hearts

Each an individual expression

You are tied to no one

Not husband to wife

Not mother to child

Not student to teacher

Not employee to company

Not human to god

Only you

Only me

Only them

Only here

Only now


Look at your timepieces

Note that the indicators

Travel in a circle

Can we not remember this

Without wearing reminders on our arms?

Look at the women

Are they not beautiful

Miracles of nature?

Look at the men

They arouse the pride

Which dwells inside you

Look at the children

Are they not fragile

Flowers before the fruit?

No one made you

No one is watching

No one sits in judgement

No one shall punish you

It is the same for the others

Consider this before you stir

Some are strong

Some are frail

Some are clever

Some are dull

How will you deal with them?

How will they treat you?

What shall bind you together?

What will pull you apart?

You already have these questions

In common with the others

Will you form tribes?

Will you build nations?

Will you go with your generation?

With your sex?

With your colour?

With them who share your language?

All may do as they wish

Will you be a leader?

Will you follow another?

Will you go alone?

Before you rise to walk

Ask yourselves

What do you want?

What do you need?

Who do you want to be with?

Who do you need to be with?

Why do you want them?

Why do you need them?

Ask yourselves

What shall be the glue

To bind us together?

Nothing has been provided

We shall have to make our own

Before you arise to walk

Look over the crowd

At the world you share

A multitude of life forms

Abundance of necessities

Awaiting your discovery

Anticipating your footsteps

You may go where you wish

It is very beautiful

It is very large

How should you proceed?


Now!

Families sit together

In a circle

I ask you children

If you obey your parents

Only to avoid punishment

Is that honourable or commendable?

I ask you parents

If your children obey

Only to avoid punishment

Is that reason to be proud of them?

I ask you spouses

Can a public ceremony

Make it easier to hide

Vows that are broken?

I ask you wives

If you are faithful

Only to avoid shame

Is that honourable or commendable?

I ask you wives

If you husbands are faithful

Only to avoid scorn

Is that reason to be proud of them?

If your husbands

Were not attracted to women

How could they have found you?

If they now kill this attraction

Does that not jeopardize your relationship?

I ask you teachers

If your student echoes your teachings

To gain your approval

Is that reason to be proud of him?

I ask you students

If your teacher disapproves of your ideas

Is it honourable to discard them?

I ask you society members

Can your fraternity

Be propped on shameful initiations

And still be attractive to real men?

Hear me Christians!

Look upon a newborn

Look upon a murderous rapist

Explain to me

How can the former

Be stained with sin?

How can the latter

Be born again?

Answer me Jews!

How sexual mutilation

And food taboos

Are spiritual requirements?

I ask you Muslims

How can a man

Justify his domination

Over all women

By surrendering himself to a book?

I ask you Buddhists!

Is the practice of non-attachment

In order to avoid suffering

Honourable or commendable?

Is not the avoidance of pain

The root of mental illness?

I ask the spokesmen

Of the ancient voices

Is their antiquity

A guarantee of their wisdom?

I implore you

Suspend immaculate conception

Let the golden child to walk

Without requiring flowers to spring up

From his footsteps

Don't banish the prophets

To sharpen distant swords

Don't nail the wise to trees

Don't make them drink hemlock

Don't immolate the genius

Let them be what they are

Listen to their ideas

Or not

It is your will

You needn't be afraid

Of men who shout

Or men who whisper

You must be careful

Of all men and women

I ask the poor man

Is it not easier for you

To be virtuous

Than the wealthy man

Who has access to every temptation?

I ask the rich man

Can you be sure of the purity

Of your relationships?

I tell you Kings and Queens,

Emperors and Empresses

Take off your crowns

No god grants your right

To rule over others

Only your family

And your wealth

Make this possible

Was it not always thus?

I ask you citizens of democracies

Are 49% under the will of 51%

A satisfied group?

I ask you citizens of republics

Is the democracy into which you decay

Worth the blood sacrificed for your birth?

I ask you communists

Did you forget

To design your brilliant solution

For use by ordinary humans?

I ask you citizens of empires

What were you before

You took by force

The abundance of others

Less technological?

I ask you soldiers

If you wore no uniform

And you had no comrades

Could you kill to protect

Your own family?

Who seized your grandfather's farm?

I ask you Satanists

Are not your followers

Reverse Christians

Nourished by the same fable?

I ask you immigrants

Would you have crossed oceans

If you were happy at home?

How can a foreign land

Give you the right to steal?

Is not your behaviour

The same as the tyrants you fled?

I ask you city dweller

How can you feel superior

To a primitive man with his own hut

When you pay monthly

To live in another man's hut?

I ask the Occidental

Why have you slaked

Your intellectual thirst

With alcohol since the beginning?

I ask the Oriental parent

Where in all of nature

Is there an animal

Bound to feed its parents?

The brood that you produce

As insurance for yourself

Taxes the rice bin

I ask the North American parent

Where in all nature

Is there a mammal

Which abandons its offspring?

The children whom you abandon

Guarantee the survival

Of the human predators

Which plague your cities

I ask slaves

Who captured you

And sold you

To your master?

I ask your master

Who prepares your food?

And sings your children to sleep?


I have bent your ears

As you have allowed

Disperse and go where you wish

Go back to your churches

Go back to your mosques

Go back to your synagogues

Go back to your pentagrams

Aware now, that you men and women

Are the gods and the devils

That you fear and obey

Go back to your schools

And look for a teacher

Go back to your companies

And follow the money

Go back to your secret societies

If the meetings were made public

Would that diminish the membership?

Return to your families

And give them your honesty

Behave honourably towards them

If you expect the same

What? Are you missing your fetters?

Try this:

Imagine the most noble you

Put this version of yourself on a cloud

Where your notion of god once was

Look down upon yourself with compassion

Pray to yourself

Answer your prayers

Reward yourself

Punish yourself

Allow all other people to do this

Maybe we'll grow out of it


fin

15 views

Comments


bottom of page