And what infuriated the slaves
about and against their masters was never faith itself,
but rather the freedom from faith,
that half-stoic and smiling nonchalance
when it came to the seriousness of faith.

Enlightenment is infuriating.

Slaves want the unconditional;
they understand only tyranny, even in morality.
They love as they hate,
without nuance, into the depths, to the point of pain and sickness
– their copious, hidden suffering makes them furious at the noble taste
that seems to deny suffering.

Skepticism about suffering
(which is basically just an affectation of aristocratic morality)
played no small role
in the genesis
of the last great slave revolt,
which began with the French Revolution.

Beyond Good and Evil, by Friedrich Nietzsche, trans. Judith Norman, aphorism 46

How to take the measure of one’s own time? The erudite writers and readers of the New York Times keep trying. I receive the New York Times, The Morning, email bulletins daily which I often read.

Outside of the Times email, I am careful not to read or listen to the day to day speculative “reporting” from the left or from the right. Opinion, is a pundit’s interpretation of someone else’s experience. Is there anything more ephemeral, smoke-like, than opinion?

Time is precious. The weight of obligation to family, to friends, to myself is always felt. Why spend limited emotional capital, investing care, pro or con into an opinion? I seek conversations to enjoy, and more books to read, ideas to absorb. And circumstances change. In the heat of today my garden plants beg for water.

Still to take the measure of these times, war in Ukraine, genocide in Gaza, China aspiring to empire in Asia, extreme weather events ignited by climate warming lashing the global north – all figure in.  And how much weight do I give to the Democratic party’s attempt to sustain capitalism’s status quo, a counter to the assault of the Trump-Republican party’s obsession with revolution, to “burn-it-all-down”?

In the quoted passage Nietzsche offers comment. What do the majority working class find most offensive about the 1 per-cent club, the uber-affluent?  It is the half-stoic and smiling nonchalance facade that human suffering is beneath them. “They” have ascended to an altitude, where they are “over” the impediments, the chronic condition of the majority of their fellow human beings. This affectation is what is most despised.

Could Nietzsche have misjudged the arc of history?  Perhaps the French Revolution was not the commencement of the last great slave revolt.  The setting sun of late capitalism, – the precursor of one more great slave revolt?

Time enough for one last act?

More photos captured at Pride Louisville.