PNTV: Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche (#60)

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Hey, this is Brian. Welcome to Philosopher's Notes tv. Today we're going to do Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra. As you can see, I've got quite a few little marks here. Awesome book. Super intense. What can you say about Nietzsche? We'll start with his name. You can say Nietzsche or Nietzsche. I kind of like Nietzsche, so we'll go with that. First thing you need to know, Nietzsche, obviously. Intense guy. They say that he delivers his philosophy with a hammer. Right? So lived in the 19th century and passed away, actually in 1900. He was basically all about challenging people to transcend their social conditioning to move beyond the church and state and find their own truths. So Thus Spoke Zarathustra is written kind of a mock biblical style. Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Kind of a guy coming down from the mountain with the new truth and moves beyond good and evil through the will to power. These are other books that Nietzsche wrote, but super cool. I dig it if you're intense. If you're into living at your highest potential, go find a quiet place, spend a weekend, or spend however many hours it takes and curl up with some Nietzsche. For now, we'll look at a few of my favorite big ideas. We'll start with this whole idea that God is dead. It comes from this book you've probably heard, you've seen the T shirt, God is dead. Then on the back it says, nietzsche is dead. God. But here's what he meant. So basically, Nietzsche believed in the Uberman, which is kind of the modern Superman. He believed that there's animal, then there's man, which is a bridge to the Uberman, to the Superman. Now, as we become Uber men and women, what we're doing is we're transcending our social conditioning. We're moving beyond it. We aren't looking to a priest to tell us what's right and what's wrong, what's good and what's evil. We trust ourselves for that. We don't need an intermediary between ourselves to give us that truth. And he believes that when we move beyond that sense of someone else telling us what's good and evil, God is dead. There's no need for God in that equation. There's no need for the kind of anthropomorphic Christian idea of the big guy in the sky who's deeming who's been naughty and who's been nice. He's like, no, the Uberman doesn't need that. The Uberman relies on him or herself and goes out and lives an extraordinary life. So that's a really quick look at my take on what that means. We can talk about that for a weekend. So there you go. And we will move on to some other extraordinary ideas. As I mentioned, Nietzsche is all about us living at our highest potential, becoming the Ubermen and uber women we are destined to become. He says, in the process of getting there, we've got to remember that. He says this amazing quote that you've probably heard before, it comes from this book. He says, one must still have chaos in oneself to give birth to a dancing star. One must still have chaos within oneself to give birth to a dancing star. Isn't that amazing? We've got to still have chaos in our lives. We've got to be willing to play at an edge in order to give birth to that next highest vision of ourselves. It's kind of like surfing. If you're going to go out and find an edge, you're going to get hammered once in a while. That's part of the game. When you know that, you figure out how to get right side up and get back up, and then you laugh and you swim back out and you go find a bigger way and see if you can more skillfully ride it. That's what it's all about. Remember that if you're stressed out, if you're challenged, that's part of life. You're finding a new edge. Honor that process, honor yourself and rock it. I'm going to go really fast today because there's so much goodness in this note. So let's rock. He also says that we got to remember that when we rise, when we fly, and we become greater and greater versions of ourselves, and people who are not doing that, who are still on the ground, are not going to like it at all. He says, the higher you fly, the smaller you appear to people still on the ground, and they're going to hate you for that. He says bluntly. Ayn Rand says something very similar in her Fountainhead. She says, people don't like to look up. It hurts their neck to look up. It's much easier to look down to have pity on people than it is to look up and say, wow, that person is doing something extraordinary. Why is that? Paulo Coelho says, look, when you go out and live an extraordinary life, when someone does that, they make the rest of us feel ashamed because we know we have more within us. So when we see someone doing something extraordinary, watch out and don't be the one to rip their wings off. We want to celebrate their glory and we want to do what we can to, to also fly high. But he says, remember, when you do that, most people still on the ground are going to think you're smaller than you were when you were on the ground too. Really big idea. Another one. He says, praised be what hardens. Praised be what hardens. He also says, what does not kill me makes me stronger. So he thinks that most of us don't push ourselves hard enough to find out just how far we can go. William James, I mentioned in the note, says exactly the same thing. He says exactly that. He says we have a second wind. You know, when you run sometimes you think you're done and then you keep on running and all of a sudden you get a second wind. William James, the great philosopher psychologist, said, most of us never discover we have a second wind because we never pushed ourselves far enough to discover that we actually have that much potential. Nietzsche says the same thing. Praised be what hardens. We want to find that edge and grow and embrace that chaos so we can actually fully express ourselves. He's got a lot of other great stuff here. He's got a great line. He says they've turned the wolf into the dog and man and woman is humankind's most domesticated animal. So you got a wolf into a dog and you've got a human being who's the most domesticated animal out there. We're so conditioned, we can do this, we can't do that. We can do that, but not that. And this again gets back to the smashing of the tablets as he says, move beyond the thou shalt not thou shalt Ten Commandments type of ideas. And it's not that you don't live those things, but you live them from your own sense of truth, not because someone else told you to do it. And you do it for little rubs on the head and pats on the back and little treats. You do it because it's the right thing to do. It's a very different way of living. And as you figure that edge out, you're probably going to annoy, piss off a lot of people in the process. That's going to happen sometimes, but we got to find our own truth. Next one we're going to do is on Ralph Waldo Emerson. He talks about the same thing, self reliance. Again, so much here, I might jump back if we have time at the end. But another big idea he has is this idea again that there is no absolute truth. He says when someone comes up to him in the book and says, tell me the way. Tell me the way of truth or tell me the way to, you know, live at my highest potential. He says, look, there is no the way. This is my way. What is your way? There is no the way. We each need to discover what works for us. We each need to discover our own highest truths and write our own rule book. But if we're simply following someone else's rule book and we're not actually challenging ourselves to see what the truth is for us, and we're never going to live a fully actualized life, we've got to discover our own path. Which is why, as I do this, my challenge to you is not to accept what I'm saying, but to ask yourself, what resonates? What is my truth? Out of all the stuff that he just threw out in this 10 minutes and all the other stuff, what really resonates for you? Create your own philosopher's notes, create your own philosophy, and then live it. Actually have the courage and the audacity and the impeccability to. To live your truth. That's what it's all about. There is no the way. We've got to discover it, and then we've got to have the audacity again, the courage and the impeccability to live it. He's got an awesome line. He says he's all about willpower. And one of his books is called the Will to Power. He says, he who cannot command himself should obey, and many can command themselves, but much is still lacking before they can obey themselves. So we can say do this, but it takes a lot of willpower, a lot of discipline to actually then do it. That's why I ask us all the time, what's the number one thing you need to start doing? And the number one thing you need to stop doing that will have the most positive benefit in your life. It's easy to write that down. It's much more challenging to live it. He says, will, that is the name of the liberator and the joy bringer. Willpower. That's what liberates us. That's what brings joy. Michael Beckwith calls it blissipline. It's the pathway to freedom. Final idea. He says, to enjoy, to enjoy life, we've got to give joy. He says the masses are feel entitled. They want to experience joy and not give anything back. He says, no, no, no, not the ubermen and women. They seek to give joy. And they know we need to give joy if we want to enjoy. So we'll leave with that. Let's go out and give as much joy as we can today. Hope you dug it. If you did, I think you'll like the note. Look forward to sharing more with you soon.

See ya.

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