What’s Worth More?
‘Power
against which
much ill is done and mediated
is worth more than impotence
when it encounters only good’
-thus the Greeks felt.
That is to say:
they valued the feeling of power
more highly
than any sort of utility
or good reputation.
Daybreak by Friedrich Nietzsche, trans. R. J. Hollingdale, aphorism 360
Nietzsche is known for his frequent rumination about will-to-power. He is remembered for his forthright proclamation God-Is-Dead which was received with astonishment. Some were delighted, ‘better late than never’ to have a conversation about the recession of Christian belief. The majority though were offended, as if his parable of the madman were sacrilege. Linked to the prospect that the anchor chain of morality was severed was Nietzsche’s allusive writings about the relationship between life itself and power. Traditional thinking in American society honored the meek, the obedient, compliance with “the rules.” Power was suspect to say the least, with a whiff of evil.
Nietzsche was trained as a philologist, an expert in the languages of antiquity, Greek and Latin. In these lines lifted from Daybreak published in 1886, a question mark is placed over our American ideals which like a deck of cards contains both the card for manifest destiny, and a card for being well thought of (a good reputation). We Americans are Utilitarians are we not? Our ancestors immigrated from Europe to see-what-we-could-make of a new world. Americans are a ‘can do’ people. We simply care about solving the problems entailed in ‘progress.’ Pragmatism is in our hearts in our exercise of power here at home and around the world. The ‘American way” is the spread of freedom around the world. America wants to help.
Nietzsche, having read Greek historians of antiquity had a jaundiced eye for ‘utility.’
We Americans are no exception to every other human that has ever lived or ever will be born.
A feeling of power is the highest of all values.
(The banner image is The Sun by Edvard Munch)
