So I was reading through beyond good and evil again to go over it with what I know now vs when I originally read it. And I was intrigued by this idea that I'd seen pop up a few times in Nietzsche's works, the will to power. Nietzsche was a firm believer that something other than pure Darwinist evolution was the driving force in life. A hundred and fifty years ago there was an effort to refute or find an alternative to Darwin's evolution through adaptation, and what's interesting is Nietzsche figured out back then what I realized in the last few years. Life doesn't just evolve to fill a niche adapting to survive in any situation, that's how it does things not why.
The meaning of life is to create more of itself, this is true on all scales from the microscopic to the very grand scales of the universe itself (In theory the end goal of life is to create a new universe to expand into and escape a dying one... in theory, that's when you get into type 5 and 6 civilizations.) Beyond that is the search for purpose, a purpose beyond that which life already has, to create more and make everything in it's own image. This is what separates consciousness from instincts and something Nietzsche called der Wille zur Macht or the will to power.
What it boils down to is this. All life wants control over it's environment, Gaining pleasure from that control and learning to expand and grow beyond your limitations is the purpose, be it in art, or science, or just living comfortably in a nice house. The search for that is the real meaning beyond creating more life, at least according to Nietzsche. Now granted this was in the late 1800's, and it shows in some of his other stuff with the sexist and sometimes authoritarian ideas on how to attain this. However the basic idea isn't particularly wrong.
Let's take a look at the recent struggles with the rich vs the poor. According to Nietzsche this is the master/slave dynamic and is what defines good and evil for a society based on good and bad consequences for those in charge, a topic I will have to go into in it's own thread. The rich are constantly striving for power, they want to overcome their lot in life, to gain more control and feel the pleasure of that control. Even at the expense of the lower classes. Unfortunately they never overcome this and so society suffers. This ends up causing pain for them from the fear of losing that control. Ask any influential person what they fear most and I guarantee you it's the loss of their position in life.
You see the best people to put in charge are the people who don't want to be put in charge because they will only strive for more, to feed that will, that driving force with an unquenchable thirst. Nietzsche describes this as Machtgelüst. the desire for more power. It's what happens when you have the pleasure of power and control but a desire to overpower it, to have absolute control. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Overcoming this and sating that desire is how you move past it. At least from what I've read from Nietzsche and tangentially related works as well as my own experiences.
Anyway that's just an interesting philosophical perspective. It's not perfect, but it goes a long way to explaining the why of how things work these days.
The meaning of life is to create more of itself, this is true on all scales from the microscopic to the very grand scales of the universe itself (In theory the end goal of life is to create a new universe to expand into and escape a dying one... in theory, that's when you get into type 5 and 6 civilizations.) Beyond that is the search for purpose, a purpose beyond that which life already has, to create more and make everything in it's own image. This is what separates consciousness from instincts and something Nietzsche called der Wille zur Macht or the will to power.
What it boils down to is this. All life wants control over it's environment, Gaining pleasure from that control and learning to expand and grow beyond your limitations is the purpose, be it in art, or science, or just living comfortably in a nice house. The search for that is the real meaning beyond creating more life, at least according to Nietzsche. Now granted this was in the late 1800's, and it shows in some of his other stuff with the sexist and sometimes authoritarian ideas on how to attain this. However the basic idea isn't particularly wrong.
Let's take a look at the recent struggles with the rich vs the poor. According to Nietzsche this is the master/slave dynamic and is what defines good and evil for a society based on good and bad consequences for those in charge, a topic I will have to go into in it's own thread. The rich are constantly striving for power, they want to overcome their lot in life, to gain more control and feel the pleasure of that control. Even at the expense of the lower classes. Unfortunately they never overcome this and so society suffers. This ends up causing pain for them from the fear of losing that control. Ask any influential person what they fear most and I guarantee you it's the loss of their position in life.
You see the best people to put in charge are the people who don't want to be put in charge because they will only strive for more, to feed that will, that driving force with an unquenchable thirst. Nietzsche describes this as Machtgelüst. the desire for more power. It's what happens when you have the pleasure of power and control but a desire to overpower it, to have absolute control. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Overcoming this and sating that desire is how you move past it. At least from what I've read from Nietzsche and tangentially related works as well as my own experiences.
Anyway that's just an interesting philosophical perspective. It's not perfect, but it goes a long way to explaining the why of how things work these days.
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