Teachers of Remorse

"everything is sexist, everything is racist, everything is homophobic, and you have to point it all out to everyone all the time"

 

- the world-renowned feminist sage Anita Sarkeesian defining the word "sinecure" in 2015

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"Whether I contemplate men with benevolence or with an evil eye, I always find them concerned with a single task, all of them and every one of them in particular: to do what is good for the preservation of the human race. Not from any feeling of love for the race, but merely because nothing in them is older, stronger, more inexorable and unconquerable than this instinct—because this instinct constitutes the essence of our species, our herd. [...] Even the most harmful man may really be the most useful when it comes to the preservation of the species; for he nurtures either in himself or in others, through his effects, instincts without which humanity would long have become feeble or rotten. Hatred, the mischievous delight in the misfortune of others, the lust to rob and dominate, and whatever else is called evil belongs to the most amazing economy of the preservation of the species. To be sure, this economy is not afraid of high prices, of squandering, and it is on the whole extremely foolish. Still it is proven that it has preserved our race so far.
[...]

For the present, the comedy of existence has not yet "become conscious" of itself. For the present, we still live in the age of tragedy, the age of moralities and religions. What is the meaning of the ever new appearance of these founders of moralities and religions, these instigators of fights over moral valuations, these teachers of remorse and religious wars?

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In order that what happens necessarily and always, spontaneously and without any purpose, may henceforth appear to be done for some purpose and strike man as rational and an ultimate commandment, the ethical teacher comes on stage, as the teacher of the purpose of existence; and to this end he invents a second, different existence and unhinges by means of his new mechanics the old, ordinary existence. Indeed, he wants to make sure that we do not laugh at existence, or at ourselves—or at him

[...]

Gradually, man has become a fantastic animal that has to fulfill one more condition of existence than any other animal: man has to believe, to know, from time to time why he exists; his race cannot flourish without a periodic trust in life—without faith in reason in life."

Friedrich Nietzsche - The Gay Science

(1882)

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I had planned to open the official new year (the logical new year of course started after the solstice) with a long-winded political rant. Hobbes and Wells, Chomsky and Heinlein accompanied by Modest Mouse lyrics, great stuff I assure you. In an unexpected development, turns out long posts take a long time to write. Screw that. So instead I'm letting old Fritz do the heavy lifting for the moment and I'll get around to the next one... ehh, whenever.

I wish I'd paid more attention in Intro to Philosophy so I'd actually remembered to include this opening page of The Gay Science in my previous ranting on the topic of Mrs. Grundy's various masks under the "humanity" tag here. Being Nietzsche, he manages to be both dead wrong and beautifully prescient at the same time. His interpretation of natural selection "for the preservation of the human race" is a 19th century relic thoroughly thrashed by subsequent generations, especially with the growing understanding of gene-centered evolution... and it refuses to die, but that's a topic for another day.

 

Nevertheless one need not appeal to the group selection fallacy to interpret the past year's riots here in the States as tribal allegiance, loyalties built via hijacking our brain's dependence on behavioral markers as measures of inter-relatedness: slogan-chanting, uniforms, etc. For a time, the new creed of "anti-racism" (read: anti-white racism) has overtaken past years' shadows of God upholding the moral superiority of homosexuality or femininity. Like any holier-than-thou fanaticism it sustains itself not by the communal good it touts but by providing its adherents justification to build up their self-worth by tearing down those around them, to out-compete designated villainous outsiders by any means necessary - be it torched buildings and cars or cracked ribs and skulls.

Rousers of such rabble operate on lessons modern society learned back in the sixties, that not only priests and preachers but profiteers of all stripes can monetize the human need for existential justification, for purpose. Someone has to proclaim the moral perfection of the new faith, pound the new pulpit. Someone has to sell the bongs and tie-dye shirts, and if it's not the most lucrative profession, at least there's no shortage of gullibility. You can "point it all out to everyone all the time" for as long as human nature remains human.

Here's what really ticked me off into writing this post: I got sick of hearing you all greet the new year with trite, formulaic relief that 2020 is over. It's a case of "new barrel, same monkeys" and no matter what challenges the new year brings, you can count on the naked ape to use them merely as pretexts to attack its neighbours, to outcompete and out-breed perceived outsiders from the muddy, rancid high ground of an inviolable absolute faith. One might only hope that the society we see now represents a momentary nadir of fanaticism in some endless succession of reason and romanticism.

 

"And again and again the human race will decree from time to time: "There is something at which it is absolutely forbidden henceforth to laugh." The most cautious friend of man will add: "Not only laughter and gay wisdom but the tragic, too, with all its sublime unreason, belongs among the means and necessities of the preservation of the species."
Consequently—. Consequently. Consequently. O, do you understand me, my brothers? Do you understand this new law of ebb and flood? There is a time for us, too!"

 

 

Hope for a truly New Year, you sad old species.