Nietzsche and Rousseau
On Nietzsche's assertion that "Once we label something, we invalidate it."
This is true to an extent. Labels are inadequate representations. Defining an object reduces its reality, and much data is lost in the process.
On Rousseau:
Rousseau postulated that it is society that corrupts man (an otherwise noble creature). Society can be perfected, because man can be perfected. If corruption and evil exist, it is not human weakness that is responsible...it is societal imperfection. Hence the imperative: Society must be remade. Change as a goal, and motto.
Here we find the genesis of that elitist idea: the further from society one is (the loin-clothed barbarian, for instance), the more authentically noble one is. Instead of society being a shelter, a shield against the nature of man, it is a vehicle, to be discarded or rebuilt at will.
Opportunity cost was removed from the sphere of political science. Redistribution feels good, whatever the consequences. You can't hug your children with nuclear arms, etc.
Perfect became the enemy of the good. Thanks, Rousseau.
This is true to an extent. Labels are inadequate representations. Defining an object reduces its reality, and much data is lost in the process.
On Rousseau:
Rousseau postulated that it is society that corrupts man (an otherwise noble creature). Society can be perfected, because man can be perfected. If corruption and evil exist, it is not human weakness that is responsible...it is societal imperfection. Hence the imperative: Society must be remade. Change as a goal, and motto.
Here we find the genesis of that elitist idea: the further from society one is (the loin-clothed barbarian, for instance), the more authentically noble one is. Instead of society being a shelter, a shield against the nature of man, it is a vehicle, to be discarded or rebuilt at will.
Opportunity cost was removed from the sphere of political science. Redistribution feels good, whatever the consequences. You can't hug your children with nuclear arms, etc.
Perfect became the enemy of the good. Thanks, Rousseau.
posted by John Aristides at 1:41 PM
2 Comments:
Labels can be very helpful. When one of my sons was 12, we knew he had a problem, but no diagnosis. I told my wife, it was like fighting an invisible dragon. You know something is there, but you don't know what.
With a diagnosis,(a label), even if you can't see the dragon, even if the label isn't perfect, at least you have some idea what it might look like, and how you can fight it. I was grateful when we learned what my son had, so we were able to do more.
That awful dragon still hangs around, but I've gotten to know it very well. Just this week, a mother with a son with the same thing called, and said what i had told her earlier had helped. She thanked me. Best thing that happened all month. To know you have made a difference in someone's life. That you have given hope.
Going through this is something that has deepened my faith. It's easy to think you know God when everything is going well, it's when all Hell breaks loose that you truly learn who He is.
Suffering seems to either draw you close to God, or drive you away. My son is a confirmed agnostic, unable to understand how a good god can allow such an awful thing to happen to him. I know, but he doesn't believe me.
I am agnostic because the idea of God is superfluous, gratuitous, unnecessary for the universe to work. Theodicy never bothered me, because, when I look at nature, I do not see a benign God. I see conflict, tension, friction.
The unlikelihood of my existence is where I derive my hope. My life is the culmination of randomness, chance, and unimaginable improbability. The numbers alone make me thankful, and thankfulness animates my spirit.
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