Prologue
God creates dinosaurs. God
destroys dinosaurs. God creates man. Man destroys God. Man creates dinosaurs.
We know what happens next –
dinosaur devours man.
I refer to the conclusion from
my piece, “And the Dying Cheer”:
It is interesting: reaching the
height of western liberal values immediately preceded the destruction of the
West. The nineteenth century, in many ways, was the most liberal,
free, equal period for the West – perhaps in its history. And then
the Great War – suicide, built on the scientific wisdom of man’s reason.
The Enlightenment; considered
the height of western man’s philosophical and moral achievement. Man’s
reason over God’s reason; man’s law instead of God’s law (or custom, if you
prefer). We know what happens next – man’s law devours
man. Taken altogether, a rotten tradeoff for freedom.
If you have not read this
earlier essay, this one will not seem whole.
God is Dead
From “The Parable of the Madman,” by Friedrich
Nietzsche:
"Where has God gone?"
he cried. "I shall tell you. We have killed him - you and I. We are his
murderers. But how have we done this? How were we able to drink up the sea? Who
gave us the sponge to wipe away the entire horizon? What did we do when we
unchained the earth from its sun? Whither is it moving now? Whither are we
moving now? Away from all suns? Are we not perpetually falling? Backward,
sideward, forward, in all directions? Is there any up or down left? Are we not
straying as through an infinite nothing? Do we not feel the breath of empty
space? Has it not become colder? Is it not more and more night coming on all
the time?
Perpetually falling; backward,
sideward, forward; no more up or down; an infinite nothing. Does
this sound hopeful? A declaration of a positive
event? “Enlightened”?
Man without any anchor will
create an anchor. This anchor was built on the wisdom of
“enlightened” man, a foundation of sand. Enlightened man led to the
suicide of the West.
From “Twilight of the Idols” (PDF; emphasis added):
When one gives up the Christian
faith, one pulls the right to Christian morality out from under one's
feet. This morality is by no means self-evident: this point has to be
exhibited again and again, despite the English flatheads. Christianity is a
system, a whole view of things thought out together. By breaking one main
concept out of it, the faith in God, one breaks the whole: nothing necessary
remains in one's hands.
It is quite an interesting
phrase: “the right to Christian morality.” What
is the moral Christian “right” if not the non-aggression
principle? According to Nietzsche, this is what man has given
up. We traded it for enlightened man’s right to
decide what is moral. How is that working out for you?
This Christian “system” was the
foundation of Western Civilization since the fall of Rome. This
“system” replaced Roman man-made law with custom – law based on oath, with God
as party to the agreement; the most decentralized system of law known to
the West. This system began to crumble with the Renaissance.
What did Nietzsche see as replacing
this Christian system? Taken from Jacques Barzun, “From Dawn to Decadence”:
In health man feels within him
the will to power, a drive to action and achievement, including the
self-mastery that will characterize the superman and establish a new
ethos. The present conception of what is evil will be replaced by
other standards of right and wrong, contrary to both the Christian and the
worldly virtues and vices of western civilization. In ethics and the
search for truth Nietzsche is a Pragmatist.
A “pragmatist” in ethics and
truth; a “new ethos.” No anchor: perpetually falling; backward,
sideward, forward; no more up or down; an infinite nothing.
Barzun cites Nietzsche:
In place of fundamental truths
I put fundamental probabilities – provisionally assumed guides by
which one lives and thinks.
Fundamental truths are replaced
by fundamental maybes…or maybe nots. Your betters–
the “enlightened” – will let you know which is which. Being
pragmatists, your betters will feel free to have “right” and “wrong” trade
places whenever they find it…pragmatic – meaning, to their benefit. Good
luck trying to keep up.
Nietzsche did not live to see
this suicide of the West – the Great War. He seemed to know it was
coming.
Conclusion
Not much of one, really…
Cypher:
Don't hate me, Trinity. I'm just a messenger.
Nietzsche’s declaration was not
some kind of call to arms; he merely put into words that which was well
underway centuries before he was born. He was just a messenger.