Reading Nietzsche

I once read the complete works of Nietzsche. Everything except his personal letters. While riding the train to and from work each morning and evening. I was then in the process of obtaining a much needed second divorce. My life was in turmoil and I was wearing Army Surplus Vietnam combat boots to my job as a letter-carrier. On one of those mornings, as the train sped over the rails, a drunken Indigenous young man saw what I was reading.

His yell ignited the uncaffeinated riders’ glowing sparks of awareness into white hot attention.

"Hey! Nietzsche Boy! Hic... Hey! Hey man! Are you a philosopher? Dude. Women hate philosophers!"

As I looked up at the man, all the passengers looked at me. After imparting this utterance, he slumped in a seat, closed his eyes and began to snore immediately. My ears reddened. When the adrenaline in my blood had dispersed, I realized that any person was potentially a Bodhisattva and may possibly speak truth. They may also be a Trickster and give lies. I looked out the window in the general direction of such entities and expressed my acknowledgment while their messenger snored. I decided to remain on the philosopher's road. I am stubborn.

I wondered if Nietzsche himself had ever heard that same unsought advice. After his collapse, on January 3, 1889 on the Piazza Carlo Alberti in Turin, his mother and sister cared for him until his death. Nietzsche had been to his favourite restaurant and was walking back to his lodgings. He had seen a man beating a horse and had collapsed while upbraiding the owner and physically intervening. When he awoke, he was disoriented and diagnosed insane. He survived for eleven long years, but could not function normally ever again. Did Nietzsche possibly have a stroke?

A year prior to this tragedy, Georg Brandes had begun giving Nietzsche lectures in Copenhagen. These talks were intended to explain Nietzsche's philosophy to an eager public. The topic being treated was the monumental task of the revaluation of all values. Take a moment to reckon the calibre of intellect required to even attempt such thoughts. Think also of the degree of courage that would be required to share those ideas with the public at large in any day.

Historically, multiple rare individuals who attempted examining such thoughts were jailed, killed or exiled. Their ideas are always discredited by the holders of power. It is extremely difficult to read Nietzsche and mere child’s play to misinterpret him. It is important to remember that every teacher is quite different. One kind of teacher talks slowly. They give a general outline of their lesson before they explain in detail. Not so with Nietzsche. His thought process was faster than most humans can achieve. If he had stopped to clarify his thoughts, he would have lost much. He constantly moved forward into new territory where most people do not have the heart to go.

Momentum itself can overcome fear. It is also absolutely necessary for success. If you want to walk with Nietzsche, save your questions and your energy. If you are strong enough, he will reveal a perspective that you may have never dreamed of. There is no assurance that you will find it agreeable. We all envy the eyesight of an eagle. But few would be happy if they possessed it. When we see things that we had not noticed before, learn about our own inner-functions and come to know the mechanics of our relationships, we can become very disoriented or very relieved. I believe this to be a choice of perspective.

To know the law does not exempt us from being obliged to obey. To understand Nature doesn’t exclude us from being part of Nature. Nietzsche spoke much about the herd. We have chosen to form herds and this strategy has served our species well in many respects. Nietzsche told us that our morals and values have been based upon this herd system. He felt strongly that it was time for a change. Any that stray or choose to walk on two legs are persecuted. We should recognize the value of contrary people to our survival as a species in the fullness of time. Indeed, our evolution is a process of random mutation in an environmental flux.

So, what are some of the detriments of being in a herd? Like a bait ball in the ocean, the schooling strategy invites the plunder of the innocent, the elderly and the weak. What is beneficial for a herd is usually detrimental for any individual. The working intelligence of a herd is that of its most primitive member. A human herd can be easily be manipulated using applied Hegelian tactics. Quantum computing and AI may leverage these old dialectic shepherd tricks to a degree never before seen. Nature shows us all that when one acts like food, one becomes food. But when one chooses not to, they might spook the herd and be considered evil.

If I ever made a film about Nietzsche's life, I would portray his collapse thus: A young Donald Sutherland plays Nietzsche because of his magnificent moustache. Nietzsche is in Turin because he enjoys the local climate and food. He is writing a book, The Revaluation Of All Values. His friend, Georg Brandes is presenting it to the European public in a series of lectures. It is a very radical book. One afternoon, Nietzsche walks to his favourite restaurant. He is utterly exhausted from constant writing and deep thinking.

A street urchin enters the rear door of the restaurant. Inside the kitchen, the boy places two items into the hands of a cook. A small packet of powder and a bag of money. The urchin exits and receives a pat on the head from a cloaked figure outside, who departs in a horse and carriage bearing the mark of the Vatican.

The cook mixes the powder into Nietzsche's pasta arrabiata. The substance is a new drug from South America. It is not lethal but it causes apparent insanity. The perfect solution to a perceived new problem for the larger human herd controllers. It will neutralize Nietzsche and negate his entire body of work in one step.

Nietzsche finishes his meal and begins walking back to his lodgings. He sees a man beating a horse and runs to the horse’s defense, weeping. Friedrich collapses on the piazza and the pigeons fly away. Later, a nervous flock reassures themselves that he had always been a lunatic.

However, Nietzsche's many books remain. May they continue to serve as headlamps for the intellectually hungry and the spiritually courageous. They were never intended as a destination.

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