Controversial Messages from Nietzche
By Elempe Dele
Being a non-conformist, I have been indulging and studying little parts of the large body of works of Friedrich Nietzche in recent times. The more I pick a piece, the more it get expanding because of the several aspects the German philosopher covered in his controversial lifetime full of illness and broken dreams.
Nietzsche ran his thoughts through philosophical polemics, cultural criticism and even fiction with leaning towards irony, poetry and aphorism. Elements that are visible in his philosophical offerings include his radical critique of truth in favour of perspectivism; ‘a genealogical critique of religion and Christian morality and related theory of master-slave morality; the aesthetic affirmation of life in response to both the ”death of God” and the profound crisis of nihilism; the notion of Appollonian and Dionysian forces; and characterisation of the human subject as the expression of the competing wills, collectively understood as the will to power”. He was, through his philosophical offerings, an unapologetic critic of culture, society, religion, and philosophical dogma.
Nietzsche wrote:
Why the ‘world’ exists, why ‘humanity’ exists need not concern us for the present moment […], but why you, individual, exist, this ask yourself and if no one can tell you, then try to justify the meaning of existence a posteriori by setting for yourself some purpose, some goal, some ‘therefore,’ a high and noble ‘therefore.’ Perish in pursuit of your goal – I know no higher life-purpose than to perish in the pursuit of something great and impossible.
– Untimely Meditations, 1876
The ‘death of God’ or ‘God is death’, which featured in Nietzsche’s work, was part of his courting of controversy in his philosophy. He argued that ‘the belief in the Christian God has become unbelievable”. He further ascerted that everything that was “built upon this faith, propped up by it, grown into it”, including “the whole European morality”, is bound to “collapse”. He argued that the era of Enlightenment had transformed the totality of human knowledge to the level where people will now start questioning beliefs that they once adopted, just as Africans adopted the White Man’s several beliefs. It was his thought that widespread disbelief sooner or later would lead to divine death – that is the death of God.
I am inspired by his thought-process because they are both graphic and powerful which generates up till this day evocative reactions from academics. Part of the reasons why his works remain controversial is the several interpretations, and perhaps misinterpretations scholars of different eras have viewed and appraised his offerings, yet he is widely regarded as one of the most influential thinkers of the past two centuries.
For me, the little I have been able to study resonates quiet distinctly. His writings come to me as revolutionary thought with the desire to free the mind from held belief systems. This has been described by some other prodigious minds as the foundation for European cultural rebirth. He was that philosopher who, without fear, explored the depths of human nature and challenged traditional ideas of morality.
His position was clear that the typical understanding of good and evil was a mere illusion created by societal norms and values. He believed that these moral dichotomy were foisted upon us thereby hampering our true potential for discovery. Good and evil were not inherent qualities but rather subjective judgments constructed by those in positions of power, according to his philosophical deductions. This I can attest to when I view the positions of several elites, thinkers, pseudo academics, scholars, teachers, preachers…on some WhatsApp platforms I am a member.
Nietzsche suspected that morality was used by those in power to maintain control and subject individual freedom to their dictates. He questioned the significance of these set moral standards, encouraging individuals to interrogate and reevaluate their beliefs (The great people are those who “re-evaluate all values”)
For Nietzsche, the concept of good and evil was meant to hinder our progress as humans and thinkers. He suggested explicitly that true awareness could only be achieved by surmounting these limiting notions of morality and embracing a more profound self discovery of our existence. He advised that humans should strive to climb above the confines of good and evil as dictated by the society and instead embrace a philosophy of life-affirmation, or what he called the “Will to Power” (the drive of the superman to perfect and transcend the self through the possession and exercise of creative power)
By severing from these societal constructs of good and evil, Nietzsche believed that individuals could figure out their own inner potential, creating their own value systems that will fit into their own existence. Nietzsche’s contribution to existentialism was the idea that men must accept that they are part of a material world, regardless of what else might exist elsewhere. As part of this world, men must live as if there is nothing else beyond life. A failure to live, a failure to take risks, is a failure to realize human potential. This was elucidated in Wole Soyinka’s BBC Rietch Lecture in 2004 where he discussed the difference between the material world and the world created by theologians – that is the spiritual world.
