41

Heraclitean

Only fighting yields
Happiness on earth,
And on battlefields

Friendship has its birth.
One in three are friends:
Brothers in distress,
Equals, facing foes,
Free-when facing death!

— excerpt The Gay Science. Prelude in Jokes, Cunning and Revenge by Friedrich Nietzsche, pub. 1887, trans. by Walter Kaufmann

What?  How counter intuitive!   “Only fighting yields happiness on earth…”

These short lines penned by Nietzsche in the opening section of The Gay Science are an assertion of the foundation of happiness for our species.  “Happiness,” that condition of fulfillment, achieving a functional self in our place and time comes down to making common cause with others in the struggle for survival.  Happiness and friendship comes when we band together, fighting for our lives we become brothers (and sisters) in distress.  Adversity binds us together, we become equals standing strong to face our foe.

Who was Heraclitus of Ephesus?  One of the first Greek philosophers, Heraclitus lived around 500 BC.  He asserted that change, impermanence is the protean principle.  Nietzsche recognizes conflict as essential to human solidarity, terming fighting, Heraclitean.

Forces threatening survival take many forms.  My short list would include: status quo ignorance, misogyny, tyranny, patriarchy, monopoly-capitalism, Donald Trump with his allies,…

Though social, political, and economic these elements are internally related.  Our greatest hazard is that of self deception, to imagine that these are not what they appear to be.  Life and happiness depends upon resistance, giving no quarter…

Welcome to the battlefield of life.