The Unteachable
Intermission is timely. At midpoint of a soul stirring performative event one is glad when the lights go up and everyone is invited to stand, and perhaps visit the restroom. Perhaps you’d wait with others at the Bar for a glass of white or red to take as you return to your seat.
This post is intermission. Mentally and spiritually catch your breath and stretch your legs. We have experienced two acts of Nietzsche’s parable that of the load bearing beast-of-burden, a camel. Our narrator, Nietzsche then directs our attention to the Lion, to indicate that becoming the Lion means a resolute focus upon what-one-is, the self which one has become as a consequence of family history, and as result of the history of a nation.
I stretch my legs during this intermission. My mind remains staggered with the event of yesterday. In the White House Oval Office, Trump and J. D. Vance ambushed 
President Volodymyr Zelensky with accusation of ingratitude. Cameras were rolling, reporters were in the room. I felt alarmed and sad at the public display of bullying. So, what now?
Do you remember the old Popeye cartoons? One of Popeye’s taglines was “I am what I am.” The character was a free-spirited, spinach-from-the-can fueled sailor! This is Popeye’s bed-rock, the “unteachable” ground, what Popeye was certain to enact in every circumstance.
The pivot point of Nietzsche’s insight as written by Nishitani: some of us have become aware of our “unteachable” while the majority of our fellows are oblivious. Do you think Trump and J. D. Vance would willingly own, confess their bullying proclivities? If asked would/could they simply reply, “I am a SOB and I am happy when I inflict pain on others.” What about Zelensky? Do you think he might reply that he would die for his country? What do you think?
Returning to my seat in front of the stage, one final thought comes to mind: What does it take if one desires to “make a difference” with one’s life? Is that what is meant by “one is chosen by history”?
Existence for him [Nietzsche]
means the endeavor to “discipline” oneself
in the confrontation with great problems,
and thereby to reach the
self-realization
of the “unteachable,”
the ground of the self;
or, through the disciplining of the self
and human transformation,
to become one who can
endure the great problems,
and to improve oneself
to the point that one
is chosen by history.
The Self-Overcoming of Nihilism by Nishitani Keiji, trans. by Graham Parkes and Setsuko Aihara, page 93
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So as long as there is life, music inspires, to plant a banner of solidarity, of community. This is an old one. The tune served as a life-line for me when as a young adult, I lived in a foreign country. The Sound of Silence, lyrics by Paul Simon. The tune was selected in tribute to the President of Ukraine, Zelensky, who refuses to grovel to our President, or to his role-model, the Russian autocrat.
Zelensky disturbed the silence, a counterpoint to the lies as he walked out of the room. Bravo!
The Sound of Silence
by Disturbed (2015)
Hello darkness, my old friend
I’ve come to talk with you again
Because a vision softly creeping
Left its seeds while I was sleeping
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of silence
In restless dreams, I walked alone
Narrow streets of cobblestone
‘Neath the halo of a street lamp
I turned my collar to the cold and damp
When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light
That split the night
And touched the sound of silence
And in the naked light, I saw
Ten thousand people, maybe more
People talking without speaking
People hearing without listening
People writing songs that voices never shared
And no one dared
Disturb the sound of silence
“Fools” said I, “You do not know
Silence like a cancer grows
Hear my words that I might teach you
Take my arms that I might reach you”
But my words, like silent raindrops fell
And echoed in the wells of silence
And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon god they made
And the sign flashed out its warning
In the words that it was forming
Then the sign said, “The words on the prophets are written on the subway walls
In tenement halls”
And whispered in the sound of silence
5 thoughts on “The Unteachable”
The Lion seems confused, just what should it do now? It’s not an easy decision but has many avenues. as in:
https://amgreatness.com/2025/02/24/trumps-ukrainian-tightrope/
Gary, good to hear from you.
The Lion is not confused at all. The Lion (Zelensky) recognizes a bully, – Trump, Vance, Putin when it sees one. Bullies are weak, cowardly and will opportunistically victimize others. Be the Lion …. or be fodder for a lineup of bullies.
Stay tuned, because the Lion transforms into the child. Nietzsche has more to say about the way forward. There’s no need for confusion.
For me at least, the difficulty comes from attempting to make sense out of perceived chaos. Zelensky came to the mountain asking for help in fighting off an invader and was given the boot by, as you said, a weak-willed bully. As we move further into the realm of the Musk-Trump regime what does stand out is the desire to foment that chaos, to churn the cream, not into butter, but into lumps of curdled inedible milk. And they are clearly succeeding. With toads in Congress, a slimy judiciary, and a cadre of greedy unscrupulous supplicants the unholy trio (Musk, Trump, and Miller) can do WHATEVER they want. In the end it’s just terribly sad.
Hmmm…… just who is the lion in this episode, hell it could be all three, that’s with Putin over there behind the curtain. Don’t you think Z was trying to be a lion?
Seated before an unlit fireplace and wearing signature blue suit and red tie, Trump called it “an honor” to receive Zelensky, who was at his left sporting a black sweatshirt and matching cargo pants, then proceeded to praise “the unbelievably brave” Ukrainian soldiers. Disagreements simmered under the surface at first and only erupted after the vice president made explicit the new paradigm.
“We tried the pathway of Joe Biden of thumping our chest and pretending that the president of the United States’ words mattered more than the president of the United States’ actions,” Vance said. “What makes America a good country is America engaging in diplomacy.”
This was too much for Zelensky, who has watched Russia repeatedly make diplomatic agreements and break them with ease. The Ukrainian leader laid out the history from the Russian invasion of Georgia in 2008 to the invasion of Eastern Crimea in 2014 before demanding to know, “What kind of diplomacy, J.D., you are speaking about?”
When Vance replied that “the kind of diplomacy” was the sort that would end “the destruction of your country,” Zelensky tried to interject. Vance told him it was “disrespectful” to litigate the issue in public before the media, only for Zelensky to again interrupt, protesting, “Have you ever been to Ukraine?” An extended discourse followed, with allegations of ingratitude. Trump only erupted when Zelensky warned that the U.S. would “feel” the threat of Russia “in the future.”
“You’re gambling with World War III,” Trump told Zelensky, warning him, “you’re in no position to dictate what we’re going to feel.” The media was escorted out shortly afterward, and the White House rescinded its invitation to sign a deal. Said the president in a statement posted on social media, Zelensky “disrespected the United States” and “can come back when he is ready for peace.”
Outside observers quickly concluded that the Ukrainian had run afoul of Trump-era diplomatic norms. “Zelensky misread the deeply polarized nature of the Ukraine issue in the U.S. and failed to adjust his approach accordingly,” Zineb Riboua, a scholar at the Hudson Institute’s Center for Peace and Security in the Middle East, told RCP.
Gary, Zelensky is the lion.
No one lightly steps up to defend his country when attacked by a superior adversary, without being the lion. Of course language is a construct, a tool fashioned for use in communication. You are certainly free to make “lion” mean whatever you please. But I’ll exit that language game. Life is simply too short to be wasted.