Nietzschean Afterthought

Nietzsche never ceases to amaze me. I just finished his book "Twilight of the Idols" and can say it has really opened my eyes to a lot of truth. His main ideological assertions seem to be ever present in my life. To be human is simply to struggle. There is no god, no sin, no punishment, no promise of eternal bliss in heaven, there is nothing out there. Science changes, it is merely an illusion. Morality, theology, metaphysics, epistemology, and religion are all constantly changing. Everything then becomes relative. There is no eternal purpose or reality to the world. The only thing that can be held onto as a pseudo-absolute is the idea of the striving individual, the Ubermensch. Most people can never be such an individual, certainly I can not.

We all have a Will to Power, a will to develope our potential as human beings. A will for our capabilities. A will to creativity, freedom, life, to put order to the never ending chaos in our lives.

There are two types of human characteristics which Nietzsche labels Apollo and Dionysus. It is easier to understand why when you learn what they mean. Apollo is the mind. It drive the human to creatively produce, to build, to make. It is a drive to reason, order, and harmony. It is a drive to create culture, ethics, religion, and ultimately create a world with meaning and ORDER. This is a sort of metaphysical solace that produces physics, Olympian gods, Greek tragedy, laws, polity, beauty, universal ethics, light, order, and unity.

The opposite of Apollonian ideas is Dionysus. Dionysus is the body. It is sex, ecstasy, intoxication. It is drunken revelry par excellence. Dionysus breaks down social norms and morality and creates something new and unique, something individual. It is the pleasure principle in utilitarianism, it is pain and suffering, it is nothingness, meaninglessness, nihilism, death, and mortality.

In Freudian psychoanalytical terms, Apollo is the Ego and Dionysus is the Id. They are at a constant battle with each other. Apollo wants to create and instill universal truths, while Dionysus wants to break down those truths, give into bodily desires and accept the world as it is: a world filled with suffering and absolutely nothing universal. Everything is relative and everything is individually decided.

Western culture is always attempting to repress (Freudian) and hide the Dionysian reality. The ego represses the Id. Apollo represses the Dionysian truth. Western culture tries to build absolute truths in terms of religion, morality, politics, science, and culture all in order to repress Dionysian realities. However, it is Dionysus that sparks real creativity, genius, art, and beauty. The Greeks understood this perfectly. They knew that human suffering and pain is the basis for all knowledge and truth. It is at the hear of human life.

Post enlightenment views of religion are that God is dead. There is no meaning in life. We don't have to look outwards to find meaning and divinity and truth. We are now the divine ones. We can create a world for ourselves. We need to find and create meaning and purpose in our lives. We need Dionysus and Apollo together. We need to try and give form and meaning to our lives (Apollo) while simultaneously understanding that life has no meaning, no universals or absolutes, no axiomatic morals. All forms are relative and ever changing. Science, medical cures, physics, history, sociology, religion, morality, are always changing. One hundred years ago everything aforementioned was completely different than it is today. If everything is changing, then how can we claim that there are universal truths? We might view them as universal today, but in fifty years from now we will believe in completely different scientific realities, moral codes, and religious acceptances. The world is no longer flat, we can now send people to the moon, and soon we will be able to do things that we thought were physically impossible.

Life is short, vicious, and brutal. Real knowledge is the Dionysian side of our brains. Breaking down mainstream forms, Idols, decadence. We need to strive to overcome life, the will to power. We are all going to die and live a life filled with pain and suffering. We all need to accept that. It is how we live our lives that define us. It is the fight and the struggle that are both the epitome of human character. What you create means nothing, because everything is ever changing. Creations in your life are simply sand castles. The tides will inevitably change, taking with them your creations and making them nothing. The tides are morality, science, truth. These change, and your castle is gone forever. Embrace and accept suffering in order to transform it. It is inevitable. Amor Fati - We must love fate. Accept whatever life throws at us and struggle through it.

Nietzsche calls for an Ubermensch that strives beyond good and evil to cultivate their own truths and morality. Since everything is relative, one can't fall into a herd mentality of following false Idols and universal ethical codes that do not exist. Humans need to strive for virtue, for the strongest morality - YOUR morality. Christians, Jews, Kantians, everyone who prescribes to structural absolutes are all merely animals following the movements of the herd. If you want to be free, self conscious, and real then you need to be a creator of your own life. You need to recognize the divinity within yourself. You cannot follow, pray, look for meaning in Idols, absolutes, religions, etc. We look for meaning in ourselves. Once God is gone, individuals are free (and more than happy) to create themselves.

Accept the Dionysian truth of the world, and at the same time attempt to take Apollo into your life and struggle to make forms and order in the midst of such chaotic uncertainty. Do not look outside yourself to find answers - recognize your own divinity and come up with the answers on your own. Do not accept universal truths to anything - always question the answers. One cannot live their life by accepting and following a set of moral codes dictated by an organized religion. Then you live a life of decadence and of lies. Instead, cultivate your own sense of morality. Be a creator, do not follow the herd of mediocre souls searching for answers in all the wrong places. Only then can you truly be free. Only then are you real.