38. My conception of freedom.— The value of a thing sometimes does not lie in that which one attains by it,
but in what one pays for it — what it costs us.

I shall give an example. Liberal institutions
cease to be liberal as soon as they are attained:
later on, there are no worse and no more thorough injurers of freedom than liberal institutions.

Their effects are known well enough: they undermine the will to power;
they level mountain and valley, and call that morality;
     they make men small, cowardly, and hedonistic —
          every time it is the herd animal that triumphs with them.
Liberalism: in other words, herd-animalization.

These same institutions produce quite different effects while they are still being fought for; then they really promote freedom in a powerful way. On closer inspection it is war that produces these effects, the war for liberal institutions, which, as a war, permits illiberal instincts to continue.

And war educates for freedom. For what is freedom?

• That one has the will to assume responsibility for oneself.
• That one maintains the distance which separates us.
• That one becomes more indifferent to difficulties, hardships, privation, even to life itself.
• That one is prepared to sacrifice human beings for one’s cause, not excluding oneself.

Freedom means that the manly instincts which delight in war and victory dominate over other instincts, for example, over those of “pleasure.”
The human being who has become free — and how much more the spirit who has become free — spits on the contemptible type of well-being dreamed of by shopkeepers, Christians, cows, females, Englishmen, and other democrats*.

The free man is a warrior.

…Danger alone acquaints us with our own resources, our virtues, our armor and weapons, our spirit, and forces us to be strong. First principle: one must need to be strong — otherwise one will never become strong.

— Excerpt Twilight of the Idols, Skirmishes of an Untimely Man, by Friedrich Nietzsche

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“For what is freedom?” is a question before Americans that insists upon our immediate response.  The answer which is rendered on November 3rd will set the course for the future — perhaps for the entire planet.

The term “freedom” has been bandied about by self-confessed conservatives for many years.  The use is most often in the form of grievance or fear of being dispossessed by “the government” of dearly held rights.  The dark side of these complaints typically is a resultant restriction of the freedom of others.  I’d rather not dine in a restaurant if citizens not unlike myself are present, armed with a concealed weapon, without law enforcement training or authorization.  Given the generalized stress among us, it’s easy to imagine a drawn weapon in a dining room, or a parking lot.  “Freedom” has taken some bizarre twists in the last twenty years or so.

I could cite other examples.  To keep this post to less than essay length I will hasten to my point.

We are in this set of circumstances, the result of concatenation of many past causes.  Why waste effort and time speculating about what might have been?  We have opportunity on November 3rd to vote the unhinged,  dangerous individual out of the White House by a landslide.  The opportunity is before us to grasp, IF the state and county institutions responsible for election integrity can hold and deliver vote totals.  I realize given the  antipathy of the president and other interests dedicated to “blowing up” the election, undermining voter confidence, — the resolution of the big “if” will be clear after the fact.

Nietzsche’s assertion that the “free man/woman is a warrior,” holds it seems to me.  Now is the time when we need to be strong, become acquainted with our virtues, with our spirit.  This is not going to be easy.  Freedom is not achieved at a discount, and is worth what one pays for it.

*One must overlook Nietzsche’s sexist language.  He was a creature of his time, even as are we.

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Nietzsche is a controversial thinker.  Many of his statements are subversive.  Do not hesitate to comment.