My intention was the preceding post as my final comment on The Dawn of Day. After all the featured quotation by Nietzsche appears on the last page of his book. And yet three more “pearls of wisdom” remain, which beg for comment. The first of the three aphorisms is equivalent to a Molotov cocktail thrown through a plate glass window.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s line from the “Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution” speech given at the National Cathedral, March 31, 1968 is not true. No analysis of history gives any hint that justice is underwritten by the universe. Such a wild-assed-thought is a holdover from antiquity, that a Christ-redeemer rides into town and “settles up.” The thought is dangerously misleading, “a terrible delusion.” The universe has no warrant that everything is made right in the end. The story-line of humanity is entirely a human affair. A better world or a toxic relic, our choice.

Another delusion is logically entailed with the first. That is, that every human has a baseline of conscience, a humanitarian “morality” instrument that is installed by the manufacturer. “Right and wrong” is no universal. Moreover a fantasy-desire does nothing to make such an assumption real. Any number of our fellows would cut our hearts out, and wake up fully rested, upon the very next sunrise. “Everything is guilt which is felt as such,” is another dangerous assumption.

563. There is
no “eternal justice”
which requires that every fault
shall be atoned and paid for,
—the belief that such a justice existed
was a terrible delusion,
and useful only to a limited extent;

just as it is
also a delusion
that everything is guilt which is felt as such.

It is not the things themselves,
but the opinions
about things that do not exist,
which have been such a source of trouble to mankind.

You and I are drawn to authority figures like “moth to a flame.” A male with a deep baritone voice, rugged but affable demeanor is a person to be listened to. Why, I’d be inclined to buy/lease the brand of pickup truck this person is recommending. Authority figures: Ronald Reagan, Donald Trump come immediately to mind. Though revered and followed by millions these individuals were not, and are not great intellects. Even a great intellect is a flaming halfwit beyond the narrow band of his/her field of expertise. And Donald Trump, – beyond his skill as a Grifter, vast inner space yawns “between his ears.”

564. Even great intellects have
only a hand-breadth experience

—in the immediate proximity
of this experience their reflection ceases,
and its place is taken
by unlimited vacuity
and stupidity.

These lines are a description of the mental and physical benefits of learning. Life-long-learning is one of the keys to happiness. Do I desire to become more open to others, appreciative of the web of relationships – non living to the living and the living to art, music, and athletics? Then I ought to learn as much as I can whenever I can.

On the other hand, I can just “fake it.” It is less work to be a “braying ass,” insisting that ignorance is a virtue. Even when bored to death, when suffering slow soul-death, one may strut through the world, preening, demanding attention to our superior self. All the while one entertains oneself to oblivion.

The division is a simple one: to be pro-learning, or to be pro-ignorance.

565. Wherever we understand
we become amiable, happy, and ingenious;
and when we have learnt enough,
and have trained our eyes and ears,
our souls show greater
plasticity and charm.

We understand so little, however,
and are so insufficiently informed,
that it rarely happens that we seize
upon a thing
and make ourselves lovable
at the same time,

—on the contrary
we pass through cities, nature, and history
with stiffness and indifference,
at the same time
taking a pride in
our stiff and indifferent attitude,
as if it were simply
due to superiority.

Thus our ignorance
and our mediocre desire for knowledge
understand quite well
how to assume a mask
of dignity and character.

The Dawn of Day by Friedrich Nietzsche, trans by J. M. Kennedy, published 1911