No one ever notices it. No one, not even my own family member can detect the frown that concealed under my cheerful smile when I got home. Suppressing one’s feeling and thought for sake of another is tantamount to destroying one’s passion for sake of other. Looking back at my childhood, I can develop a better understanding of Nietzsche’s theme of repression of passion in “Morality as Anti-nature.” I had a very rough childhood. My biological father ran away when my sister was born leaving my family with more than hundreds of thousand of dollars in debt. Before my real dad disappeared, my family owned a car painting company that brought millions of dollar in profit. When the economy went bad, other companies stopped paying for the paint they …show more content…
brought, my father spent all of the saving on gambling and other women, and bills started to went up. Right before my mom decided to close the firm, all of the college fund and family saving vanished in the wind together with the man whose I no longer called a father. From a mansion to a rented house, from Mercedes to public bus, and from luxury to poverty, my life turned upside down. It seemed that I lost everything, but it was not the case. Thank to the incident, I grew up at much faster pace than those around me. Believe it or not, by the age of eight, I worked as a dishwasher in a restaurant, a helper at the local store, and an actress under Bee Amazing Cooperation.
Inside the house, I prepared food, ironed clothes, and took care of my sister in place of my mom. I devoted myself for the family. The word “ tired” or any form of complains never came out of my mouth. I knew that my sister suffered from growing up without a father figure and my mom worked really hard for the family. Imagine that one day you are the CEO of the company and then the next day, you deliver fish tasks and sell second-hand clothing for a living. Since everyone in my family endured a great deal of distress, who am I to said that I want to be an actress instead of a …show more content…
doctor? Friedrich Nietzsche once said that “ Destroying the passions and cravings, merely as a preventive measure against their stupidity and the unpleasant consequences of this stupidity-today this itself strike us as merely another acute form of stupidity” in Morality as Anti-Nature section from his book, Twilight of the idols.
I can understand that Nietzsche was scolding those who give up on their passion with fear of failure and other factor, but how can Nietzsche’s thesis justify my family situation? If I was to adopt Nietzsche’s theory, then is it ok for me to complain about the life I have, stop working, put more burdens on my mom’s shoulder, and spend the money that my mom gain from sacrificing her health to hang out with friend just like other kids in my neighborhood? It is not the fear of failure, but the guilt of betraying my family that would eat me alive. If I were to turn into an immoralist like Nietzsche and pursue my passion instead of taking care of the family, then I would turn into a monster that break her own mom’s heart. My mom had to drop out of college in order to take care of me and my sister, therefore she never get to pursue her dream of becoming a professor. Instead she is working as a waitress in local restaurant. How am I going to tell her that I want to be an actress? All my family ever need from me is stability. Career in acting cannot give my family the sustainability it need, but a career in medicine can. My mom allocates her body and soul trying to
fund my education. I can’t waste her money and energy on something that are so hard to grasp. This is not like my mom said no and I just did not do it. I tried to be an actress before. Back in Thailand, I auditioned to be a trainee in Bee Amazing Cooperation. This company produced its own actors, singers, and dancer for their own television shows. I got in through my acting skill. After years of training, I became surprisingly good at acting and singing. I got to be on a TV shows, radio show, and newspapers together with other kids. I used to think that it could work. I really thought that I could become real actress. But the reality hit me hard when I turned thirteen. By that time, my mom immigrated to United State to find a job leaving my sister and me alone with my grandma. My mom met my stepfather and got married there; she decided that she want my sister and I to come and study here. At that time, the company got so many new and talented kids that I kept on getting less screen time on the show. I was not bold enough to become an independent actress. I was only thirteen and my mom went through a lot of trouble trying to bring me here. Can Nietzsche blame me for succumbing to the “ form of stupidity” and ditch my passion for family? Nietzsche might believe that passion is “the instinct of life,” but for me, I don’t believe that one was born with one innate passion that should be follow for the rest of one’s life (Nietzsche 1). When I came to United State, I found a new passion to follow. In the beginning, I had such a hard time learning English. I used to watch SpongeBob Square pant with a gigantic dictionary next to me and paused the show almost every single minute to look up and word in order to understand it. Once I get rid of the language barrier, I started to explore myself with the opportunities presented here. Since public school is free, I got an opportunity to learn how to play violin, to participate in math competition, to join cross-country, and do thing that I would never imagine myself doing in Thailand. When I entered high school, I got into the volunteering program at Baptist Hospital. I was festinated by the idea of how one human being can use knowledge in such a way that he or she could improve one’s life tremendously. The idea that one can use education to extend another’s life captured my attention. Every time I enter the hospital, I can imagine myself wearing one of those white coats and coming up with a way to improve a quality of one’s life. If I were to stay in Thailand being an independent actress with no connection in the entertainment world, I would never come this far. I would never be able to speak English, play an instrument, excel in sport and discover a new passion that I actually want to pursuit with a full support from a family. I believe in the some aspect of Nietzsche’s idea of passion. I do believe that one should follow one’s passion attentively. But as a human, one should not give up without trying, yet one should not just blindly follow our original passion. One should hold some type of common sense and learn how to let it go. There must be a middle ground between following a dream and mindlessly doing whatever one’s heart desire.
However, the same could not be said about the narrator. The narrator loved school, but every day his mother would tell him to drop out and continue the family tradition of becoming a fisherman. He tried to do what his mother pressured him to do, and now every night he wakes up “at four o'clock in the morning with the terrible fear that I have overslept” (1). The narrator now wakes up in the middle of every night because he has anxiety after experiencing a traumatic experience which was caused by his mother’s constant pressure and expectations for him to do what she feels is right for him. Also, my parents would suggest that I attend a prestigious university after graduating high school because they hear exceptional things about those certain universities and associate success with them. This makes me feel rushed as they are constantly bringing it up, and I also feel like I have no choice but to apply to the schools that they recommend. The narrator’s mother would also make him feel as if he had no choice but to become a
Criticizing the cruelty of society, Baudelaire begins his book, Flowers of Evil, with a warning. To foreshadow the disturbing contents that his book focuses on, Baudelaire describes the unpleasant traits of men. Lured by the words of the Devil, people victimize others. Grotesque images of torture and swarming maggots exemplifies the horrors of our actions. Yes, our actions. Baudelaire puts shame to every human, including the reader, through the word “ours.” Humiliated, the reader dare not to allow himself to be guilty with the worst sin – boredom. Separated by dashes, the last sentence commands the reader to choose whether to fall to the worst or save himself a little bit of dignity. Accused and challenged, the reader is pressured to ponder
When we talked about Nietzsche in class we discussed how a lot about the second essay, which is about Guilt and Punishment. Here are two quick overviews of what Nietzsche describes punishment and guilt as. Guilt is being accountable and responsible for the action you have done. You have guilt because you could have done something in the right direction instead. Nietzsche says that if free will is attached to accountability and responsibility then it cannot be connect with guilt. It is based off a debt that you have acquired and needs to be paid back. Punishment is dependent on the offender’s decision to act the way that they do. The reason this person deserves a punishment is because they have the ability to act differently off the start, they chose to act in the wrong and they have to take the punishment they get. Nietzsche says that if someone is not acting freely (accident, insanity, etc.) then they are seen as being exempt from punishment.
Nietzsche believed that though life is a struggle, “the arts generally make life worth living.” However, he felt this pessimistic attitude was a problem and came to his conclusion about art after turning his attention
While critical of the attitude found in the ressentiment of slave morality, Nietzsche’s includes it as an important factor contributing to the bad conscience of man. Even though Nietzsche dislikes the negative results of bad conscience – man’s suppression of his instincts, hate for himself, and stagnation of his will -- Nietzsche does value it for the promise it holds. Nietzsche foresees a time coming when man conquers his inner battle and regains his “instinct of freedom.” In anticipation of that day’s eventual arrival, Nietzsche views the development of bad conscience as a necessary step in man’s transformation into the “sovereign individual.”
“Has he got lost? Did he lose his way like a child? Or is he hiding? Is he afraid of us? Has he gone on a voyage? Emigrated?” No the madman says; “we have killed him – you and I. All of us are his murderers” This exchange encapsulates the aphorism that underpins much of Nietzsche’s thought; that “God is dead”. But what does this mean - What is Nietzsche telling us by claiming that we have murdered God? This essay is going to attempt to try and understand what Nietzsche argues has changed and what hasn’t with the death of God and to examine his critique of 19th century morality in the context of the 21st century politics and see if he offers a constructive alternative to the way we engage in political discourse.
The financial situation was especially worrisome for my personal household during the Great Recession. My parents had gotten a divorce shortly before the recession began, so my dad had to pay my mom alimony. My sister and I chose to keep living in our house with my dad. When the recession came, my father was working at a steel plant, and they were laying off several workers, so he had
We have grown weary of man. Nietzsche wants something better, to believe in human ability once again. Nietzsche’s weariness is based almost entirely in the culmination of ressentiment, the dissolution of Nietzsche’s concept of morality and the prevailing priestly morality. Nietzsche wants to move beyond simple concepts of good and evil, abandon the assessment of individuals through ressentiment, and restore men to their former wonderful ability.
Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 1993, ed. Print. The. Strander, Brian. “Nietzsche’s Moral and Political Philosophy.”
Volksgeist in German means the “national character” or the spirit of the people, while zeitgeist the spirit of time. Nietzsche, a fighter against his own age, eventually becomes the emblem of his time. He dislikes equality and freedom in democracy, saying they are the remnant of Christian weakness and a squelching of the best of human nature. He’s against Kant’s concept of duty contending that the love of following a strict moral rule is a symptom of obedience and the rejection of the 'will to power'. He opposes Bentham’s utilitarian contentment for the pursuit of 'happiness', a passive denial of life and a state more like that of a herd-animal than a human being. Nietzsche advocates Master morality that issues from a self-reinforcing, self-governing, creative and commanding mindset that label everything like oneself as “good” and other plebeian trait “bad”; as opposed to the one of reactive subordinate “ressentiment” of slave morality that excuse one’s inferiority and failure on a noble and powerful external object as the scapegoat and label it as “evil”, while the opposite of it like oneself as “good”. Nietzsche claims that to be a truly free agent is to be causa sui, the cause of oneself, not the reactive response to the outside stimuli. Only the Ubermensch, or over-human, could achieve that. Nietzsche begins his premise with the assumption that God does not exist, thus objective morality and inherent value are not possible since there is no ultimate being. Nietzsche's Ubermensch will act as one’s own God, giving oneself morality. The Ubermensch is neither slave or master of others. The Ubermensch is an independent individual who has the power to banish herd instincts from his mind and become a master with self restraint and di...
In philosophy “Nihilism” is a position of radical skepticism. It is the belief that all values are baseless and nothing is known. The word “Nihilism” itself conveys a sense of abolishing or destroying (IEP). Nietzsche’s work and writings are mostly associated with nihilism in general, and moral nihilism especially. Moral nihilism questions the reality and the foundation of moral values. Nietzsche supported his view on morality by many arguments and discussions on the true nature of our inner self. Through my paper on Moral Nihilism, I will explain 5 major arguments and then try to construct a deductive argument for each, relying on Nietzsche’s book II “Daybreak”.
financially, due to my father falling ill and as a kid I didn’t understand finances or the struggles
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the brilliant mind behind the 17th century’s epic poem “Faust”, illustrates a combining structure of desire and self-indulgence. His idea was to capture the ideal image of good vs. evil and how easily it can be misconstrued. “Of all the great dualities of hum an experience 'good and evil' have been the most instrumental in shaping the beliefs, rituals, and laws, of Homo Sapiens.”(Argano)
With full diction such as “violent and aggressive “and “feelings of exclusivity” he appeals to our deepest emotions for the sake of conveying the importance of humanism and the things we are able to feel. However, with feelings as options instead of something everyone has whether liked or not, society would overlook the importance of experiencing these emotions because of the invincibility we would have above the sense of heartbreak or grief. Although we would all love to skip the arduous times, enduring them is not only what makes us human, but also what makes us grow. We may not realize that feeling makes up society today, which is why the author reaches out at these emotions to show how Transhumanist views may make us feel better as individuals but as a whole, the social aspects of the world will
The Romanticism period is marked by changes in societal beliefs as a rejection of the values and scientific thought pursued during the Age of Enlightenment. During this period, art, music, and literature are seen as high achievement, rather than the science and logic previously held in esteem. Nature is a profound subject in the art and literature and is viewed as a powerful force. Searching for the meaning of self becomes a noble quest to undertake. In the dramatic tragedy of “Faust” by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, we find a masterpiece of Romanticism writing that includes the concepts that man is essentially good, the snare of pride, and dealing with the supernatural.