Goldilocks
Wednesday is midpoint of a seven day week. The middle is regarded to be the point of balance. It is common to believe that maintaining a balance, middle of the road, porridge not too hot and not too cold, the Goldilocks principle, (and the bed not too soft and not too hard, but just right) is the safe zone, that tepid middle, is what amounts to a good life. The thought comes with a respected pedigree. Aristotle advocated the Golden Mean in his Nicomachaen Ethics. Well being is a matter of finding the middle way between the extremes of deficiency and excess. Sounds reasonable does it not?
Nietzsche disagreed. I just spent several hours reviewing what Nietzsche wrote about morals, about ‘good’ and ‘evil’ in his book, Beyond Good and Evil. This book was my introduction to the late 19th century philosopher/writers ideas. Friedrich Nietzsche was the first of many who have come after him. Their words, weapons of courageous analysis, warning us about the fault-lines of our first world, progress and growth addicted life-style. According to Nietzsche’s lights, collectively we court catastrophe.
How to sum up Nietzsche’s definition of ‘good’? Strength in the form of noble comportment, a way of life that shows respect, deference to the beauty and cultural value bequeathed by ancestors who came before. That package of good-things was a creation of those who gave definition to their future, which is my present. And now, it is my obligation to add my quotient of ‘creation’, recognizing that my grandchildren, that cohort is to be beneficiary of my actions. For Nietzsche, goodness is world creation along these lines.
The noble type of man feels himself to be the determiner of values, he does not need to be approved of, he judges ‘what harms me is harmful in itself’, he knows himself to be that which in general first accords to honor things, he creates values...
The noble human being honors in himself the man of power, also the man who has power over himself, who understands how to speak and how to keep silent, who enjoys practicing severity and harshness upon himself and feels reverence for all that is severe and harsh… Deep reverence for age and the traditional – all law rest upon this twofold reverence.
Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche, trans. by R. J. Hollingdale, aphorism 260
Those lines suffice to convey the heart of the matter. Much more is written that is worth reading. I think this revaluation of our values, a revisiting of our preference for the tepid middle is called for if humankind is to save itself.
No starry-eyed messiah will appear to single-handedly save us. It is up to us.
This one, A Sort of Homecoming by U2 can serve as a lifeline for us today. The words, those lyric lines are worthy of our attention.
