Zarathustra's Ape, by Daven“The voice of disappointment speaks; “I listened for an echo... and heard nothing but praise.” TRUTH 1 When we find a voice, a style which suits us, but find it in another's writings, the choices become painful. Do we settle for a weaker script, a less truthful script? Or do we swallow our pride and march on, shameless in our mockingbird nature? Do we bear false witness or do we steal? Surely the latter is more brazen, more triumphant, more courageous? But for that I require your permission -- right, my friends? 2 If aping style openly can be considered a ‘virtue,’ what of content, of philosophies? Copying style is almost a breach of etiquette; it is considered rude. But to agree and corroborate a philosophy is a form of praise, perhaps even worship... as if style and content were separate entities! 3 On the subject of philosophy -- It is possible that the will to ‘truth’ could overcome the will to power, that the realisation of the central tenet of philosophy, its reason, could overcome life itself. The ‘truth’ could be that image and illusion are necessities for life to continue living. But who has ever tested this boundary? Who has been such an embodiment of the ‘will to truth’ that overcomes even itself? Perhaps only one, and it is too late to ask. 4 What is necessary to have, to be a will to truth? That life in all forms, its cruelty and indifference, death and corruption and all that epitomises suffering must be seen in the same light as the loving, the joyful and peaceful -- in other words, a great affirmation of life is needed. 5 The will to ‘truth’ has been throughout recent history epitomised by faith -- both the Indian and Christian philosophies have it amongst their ultimate ‘truths.’ Yet inspection of the term is dissuaded, doubt becomes an evil, their ‘ultimate truth’ desires to be misunderstood. For what is faith other than “It is ‘true’ because I believe it to be, because I want it to be.” If this is understood and applied it becomes a form of vitality and affirmation, but in the hands of the priest this preserve of egoism becomes... an ode to selflessness... 6 Lies come in many forms, but can be broadly categorised into three types; the ‘malevolent’ lie, where the aim is to cause harm or disruption, the ‘noble’ lie, where the lie is made to prevent harm coming to another and the ‘innocent’ lie, which is made to prevent harm coming to the liar. It is easy to see that the ‘malevolent’ lie is characterised by honesty to oneself, the ‘noble’ lie by cowardice, and the ‘innocent’ lie by dishonesty to oneself. 7 Perhaps the innocent lie is not so easy to grasp. Let us take examples; the censorship of media and art, political correctness, the ideal of tolerance, equality, the benevolent personal God and the accompanying afterlife, the vilifying of an enemy (Darwin as devil, Hitler as the only anti-Semite), the deifying of the ‘good’ (Gandhi is now incapable of making errors) and of course the lie of categorisation -- all are clear, conscious lies but made because they are necessary to protect a particular world-view. The greatest ‘innocent’ lie may be unconscious; that these lies are made for the benefit of others -- It is no coincidence that the innocent lie characterises almost perfectly the most religious people. 8 The belief in fate is not among the innocent lies, it creates no comfort. It is an indicator of strength. To be able to say ‘it was fated’ is to say ‘that which happens, happens.’ There can be no crisis of faith; every occurrence is to be taken as a secret blessing, every moment of grief is an error of evaluation on your part. Only when the word ‘should’ enters the mind can the world be considered wrong. 9 To believe in the concept of truth and lies... is the path to delusion. To not believe in truth and lies is merely a shortcut. To believe in freedom is the path to tyranny. To not believe in freedom... and so on. 10 Consider our virtues today -- we take pride in our humility, we consider ourselves exalted due to our equanimity, truth as that which is easiest to swallow. The most ‘spiritual’ believe their spirit is eternal and unchanging, at such odds with life! In the worst cases, the disgust of sexuality and abhorrence of violence run into... an uncontrollable passion!... the delusion of freedom leads to tyranny. 11 Translations: Corrections: 12 Consider the story of the SS Guard who stops a child from kicking a dog... because it is cruel. We may argue that man is broad, that he can bear the ‘ideal of the Madonna and the ideal of Sodom.’ Or we could argue that good and evil are narrow -- that they twist and turn and sometimes swap. Cruelty and charity excite the same senses, as do pride and humility. All good was originally evil -- all virtues are tied by birth to their antithesis. 13 Too many today attack emotionalism as being an intrinsic wrong, and instead worship rationality as if it is privy to arcane knowledge beyond the mere subconscious. Their idol however, has no goal and no origin; it must lie supported upon the emotions and the subconscious. It is a tool, a profoundly useful tool; rationality is the science of satisfaction. To deny the objective, to refuse empirical knowledge, is taken as irrational. The purpose of rationality, however, is to preserve and protect the values already assumed. The ‘innocent lie’ is profoundly rational. Thus argument is never won by objective argument alone but by inducing a self-overcoming in the opponent. To fully convince another, you must effectively command their rationality to eat itself -- the greatest minds as the Worm Ouroboros. 14 The ‘American Dream’ represents a self-overcoming of the doctrine of equality. To start with the ‘self-evident (truth) that all men are created equal’ skips beyond the desire to create equality... to start with the belief that all are capable of greatness -- not too honest, but more so than egalitarianism. It is also a method of enforcing altruism; the shortest path to greatness is the creation of a service. The realisation of this ‘dream’ is the most obvious transition of a slave-to-master morality, in that it represents the small becoming great, that greatness, material success, is once again a moral cause. Already, though, we see another self-overcoming rising all to fast; material success is noticed as too transitory, too short a greatness for a philosophy that still recognises eternity. Sensuality replaces it, emotionalism and cotton-wool thoughts (for the eternal thoughts are always cotton-wool) are slowly growing, indeed, have always been growing... 15 The student of spirit speaks -- Not to love or endure until you have the right to love and endure -- that is good manners. You must be able to look your love in the eye... until it turns away. The teacher of spirit replies -- Only until it looks away? Sometimes you will have to push... 16 Brahma -- In conquest we grow. 17 The anti-ontological argument -- If something can be imagined, it is without doubt wrong. It is not important, or possible, to have all knowledge. All that matters is to know (perhaps imagine) how wrong you are. 18 The meaning of solitude -- what would cause an essentially social animal to seek solitude? Many things; a great vanity that wishes to listen or speak only to the best (that is, those like itself); the desire to hide something from itself, thus from other people; as self-defence against an over-sentimentality, that will otherwise love where love cannot be returned; the limitation caused by the natural psychologist, who will attempt to dissect and understand everything it contacts, and therefore must limit what it contacts; a powerful pride that fears mockery and rejection, and will avoid situations where it may occur... in the case of some, all of the above... 19 The joy in ignorance lies in believing oneself to be profoundly and perfectly correct in the deepest of questions... and not realising that everyone else feels the same about themselves. 20 The idea of the world as a simulation, as a computer program or group hallucination, goes together with its brother, the ‘probabilistic universe’ that is controlled by ‘random’ events; they represent the death of the thing-in-itself, the end of the objective world, also of the subjective world. Together they are Aristotle's penultimate breath... ORIGINS 21 All philosophies overcome themselves -- that is how they die. Such it is with Christianity -- two millennia of the constant degrading of humanity, of supplication before the vengeful, all-loving (with all its egoistic connotations) eternal, has left Europe in a state of unconscious self-loathing. Those who now oppose the Christians, the ‘scientists,’ the ‘environmentalists,’ attack the paradigms of strength that emanate from the Bible. How many denigrate ‘Man made in God's image,’ or Man's dominion over the beasts of land and sea? How few complain of the contradictory; “The meek shall inherit the Earth?” “The lion shall lay down with the lamb?”... but that is within their faith. Thus the virus has spread beyond control, not in width but in depth. The sublime irony that now the Christians are champions of Man's grace and beauty... “We are worthy of God's mercy!”... “We are not even worthy of God!” comes the reply. Christianity is dying... thank Christ for that. 22 In tinkering with small problems we sometimes miss the pointlessness of the task... that which we aim to fix may not achieve anything even when whole. So it is with the two opposing religions Creationism and Evolutionism. Can anyone envisage what would be necessary to put the question beyond doubt? Can prehistory ever have total clarity, when history itself is so murky, clouded, misunderstood? We no longer deal with the most probable, but with articles of faith. Under what belief did Christianity first reject Darwin? Not the ‘billions of years’ that were assumed, but the concept of the animal, the bestial nature of humanity. How can a hairless ape understand guilt? How can it overcome its desire for power, its rampant lust for the sake of sin? How could something so strong accept that it was weak? And the Evolutionists... what did they seek? To cut humanity down to the level of animal simplicity... no ‘image of God,’ no dominion. They did not see glory in this evolution, as earlier moralities may have. They did not see the triumph of the species over the law of thousand-fold failure, no maniacal laughter at this victory. “We are merely part of nature.” “God does not favour us” (despite such overwhelming evidence...) “We have no divine right to strength.” “We are weak.” But surely... the arguments are not opposed...? 23 Do not assume that the great naturalists who discovered or affirmed the concept of natural selection can be considered religious in their field. To them, Darwinism is a tool for understanding, a creation that allows for further understanding and further growth. What strikes about Genesis is that even if it were true, it teaches precisely nothing. It is a beginning that is an end, for those who want an end. Similiarly, those who accept Darwinism as an absolute truth, who regard all aging as a move toward the ‘good’ and do not attempt its subtleties or question its basis, see it as an end. The new religion is not so much Evolutionism as Anti-Christianism -- in itself the newest and most extreme form of Christianity yet seen. 24 You wish to believe? I have no problem with that. But you wish to be respected for your beliefs? You wish to be taken seriously? You want me to become a copy of you? Now you ask too much... 25 Witness the innocence of our scientists today. They will watch a poorer, weaker-willed individual lie to themselves constantly and painfully. They will watch as this cause and that effect are knitted together from nothing to propound nothing. They sit astounded as rafts of information are ignored and a tiny eddy in a flowing river is taken as ‘truth,’ as representing everything. They will absorb sustained personal attacks and bizarre anti-intellectual propaganda with mere bewilderment. And yet! They will take the justifications of these broken spirits on face value! They will believe that it is done for ‘faith,’ for ‘the good’ and ‘the just,’ they will merely consider them misguided! They refuse to see the resentment behind it all... the complex scientist will refuse to believe it is that simple! 26 Prerequisite for civilization -- The desire to create systems and structures, in whatever form, is found only in the most violent of people; those who merely run amok are the gentler, freer and more innocent souls. The will to a system, to law, is a defence mechanism, the rigid framework a necessary way of channelling otherwise dangerously self-destructive affects. Even the enforcement of law is a channelling of this violence -- to punish only those who transgress. The prerequisite for civilisation is then... an overabundance of violence. 27 Prerequisite for capitalism -- Of course law is a necessity for capitalism to grow, but only a specific set of laws works. It is the set of laws that assumes equal responsibilities for all, that the aim of civilisation is the helping of the many. Democracy is also required -- the belief that the top echelons of society should be the servants of the many (such a reversal of classical values!). In fact, all should be the servants of the many -- am I understood here? The prerequisite for capitalism... is socialism. 28 Prerequisites for language -- Communication is the fundamental advantage of the social animal, but to presume language and communication are one and the same! Communication between animals starts with determining what physical attributes and movements mean, and how they are to be interpreted. Reciprocation comes when movements are exaggerated, to allow easier understanding. This process was not consciously thought through... only those that pleasure in such movement, interpretation and reciprocation would gain that advantage... the origins of dance. The calls and noises of animals are above all an expression of power and strength or lack of, and are used as such; when attacking, when feeling pleasure, when in fear and attempting to lie about strength. The important point of such calls is the modulation, the pitch and the rhythm and the emotions these trigger (why they trigger such emotions is possibly another act of trial and error.) Even today language, particularly poetry, can only be appreciated if the rhythm and modulation is understood -- otherwise it stands unreadable, un-listenable... the origins of music. Given the ability of dance and music to cover all necessary knowledge that an animal needs, what purpose has language? Why would a system of music and dance be required to become more complex? It is the evolution of untruth that requires the web grow more convoluted. The animal must now appreciate the difference between a genuine sign and its imitation, and therefore must understand the imitation. And what is language, other than an imitation of ‘reality,’ of what is really felt? The prerequisite of language is the lie. 29 The concepts of ‘beginning’ and ‘past’ belong with ‘future’ and ‘end.’ They are shadows and ghosts... our hands pass through them and our eyes see only blurry, faded outlines. There is talk of a period of pre-causality, a time where time meant nothing. The absurdity of this is, of course, that that time is now (... and then and after...) MATHEMATICS 30 Are there such things as scalar quantities? Mathematical values without direction? The concept of ‘mass’ - a value that cannot be derived without also including the concepts of ‘force’ or ‘gravity.’ Thus mass is tied inextricably to vector quantities. Let us take another. An object sits unchanging, alone in a vacuum. What time passes? Time is a measurement of change, and it takes the direction of the beating heart, the blinking eye or the ticking clock. Let us redefine scalar quantities; vector quantities with an assumed direction. 31 Let us not make the childlike error of assuming that the direction of time is forwards. Whoever engraved such a thought into the hearts of humanity has committed a prankish crime against rationality. That we cannot go backwards in time - some changes are reversible, most are not. This is not due to forwardness or backwardness, but a simple axiom; processes take the path of least resistance -- Man as a process? 32 The foundation of mathematics -- Upon what cornerstone of reality does mathematics and number logic rely? That one equals one? That two equals two? That anything equals anything else? Can we enumerate objects as separate? Where does this occur? Even if two objects exhibit the same properties they do not occupy the same space -- unless they become one pair... 33 Do not assume from this that mathematicians are wrong. Great poets master and transcend grammar; most transcend even spelling. Great mathematicians triumph in the same manner -- indeed the first step is to recognise mathematics as a language, one which must not master you. Indeed, puns, wordplay and their mathematical equivalent, the paradox, are a great cruelty to their languages; what better way to exhibit mastery than cruelty? 34 The great era of physics came at a time when the discipline of the engineer met the wild imagination of the natural philosopher -- the combination of energy and focus. Today there is only the discipline of the linguist and the imaginings of ‘objectivity’ -- the combination of wrong focus and no energy. 35 Quantum mechanics -- possibly the greatest affirmation of phenomenalism that has yet existed. That perception is a fundamental part of all observation, that the observer is always part of the observed should be obvious, but the question has been reduced to one of free will or randomness. Now we concern ourselves with the specific cell from which free will grows, and the origins of randomness. We are still Flat-Earthers at heart -- perhaps we are blessed for it... 36 The meaning of objectivity -- to sidle up to your object, and attempt to catch it unawares... or perhaps to catch yourself unawares! ART 37 What is considered ugly today? What cannot be revealed to us, alas, cannot be revealed to us. Cruelty is not among those obscenities. That fiction and non-fiction in all our media do not differ in their content; that lays us bare. Drama and ‘dramatic pictures,’ tragedies and ‘tragic events,’ movies and ‘moving scenes’ -- all are entertainment. The eyes locked on the car crash? -- They are transfixed by beauty... 38 Art as entertainment -- always it lives as a means of reaching conclusions. Thus are born two strains, the soporific and the tragic -- that which comforts with happy endings and that which hardens with brutal shortcomings. Both can take life and stretch it to its extreme limits. What need is there for entertainment? It exists to expunge fear, either by lulling the senses to sleep or allowing the elements to rasp across bare nerves until they grow to resist -- only the latter has the vitality to survive through eras. Witness any nursery rhyme. 39 Art can also allay fears by affirming a world-view. The art we most adore expresses our greatest desires -- from our entertainment we discover that our beliefs are correct simply because we want them to be. Film cults and fan clubs -- are another form of faith, albeit a more honest faith. 40 Comedy -- the most natural extension of our cruelty yet born. 41 Beware those who attempt to rationalise music. These jealous souls will reject any music that has gained even the smallest amount of popularity on grounds of technical ability, origins and the intellectualism of the song. We who have passed through such intensity can only laugh; what matters technical ability, as long as it matches that required? Origins are wholly irrelevant, originals doubly so. And ‘intellectualism’ is a mask for a total lack of musicality, heavy boots for those who cannot dance. The rationalising of music is an attempt to escape the masses, a misplaced desire to express superiority by rejection. Superiority, however, is expressed by indifference; “Do you hate us? We don't hate you. We don't even care.” 42 Rock is not dead. Rock is the death of blues. 43 In learning to play music, we learn to understand and listen to music differently. In particular, we listen in order to play the piece ourselves; all music becomes at some level a challenge to our abilities, and those we recognise as beyond us we claim as either sublime, or ridiculous. Imagine the composer then, who will recognise all his contemporaries and equals as being what he cannot be. Imagine his horror or his joy... then imagine the artist, the writer, the philosopher, in whose writings the very justification for his life resides... 44 The mask you wear allows us to see what you wish to be associated with -- deception as accidental honesty. 45 Terry Pratchett -- the pinnacle of satire, with the dual misfortune of being both easy to read and unfashionable that makes him untouchable to academics and the mob alike. Nonetheless, here speaks a free spirit that is light-hearted and deep, and his satire is so clean and simple that it is easy not to notice it. 46 Iain Banks -- Sometimes we see in a series of books an author attempting to create one book, his ‘perfect’ book, and we witness with each attempt that changing and maturing of ideals so that again he must write... ...And sometimes we see an author who struggles against the morality imposed on him from environment, and grows ever more refined and clearheaded... ...Who is capable of such inconsistent style and ability in the course of one book alone, now clumsy and then powerfully emotional, other times clear-headed and then befuddled, and whose charm relies entirely upon these juxtapositions... ...Who understands the cool, clear skies of rationality and the attendant peaceful joy, but is still a hedonist at heart -- indeed, combining the two into one virtue... In Iain Banks we can watch someone grow and mature before our eyes, and frequently in leaps that take him far beyond us. 47 Takeshi Kitano -- Here we witness something quite exquisitely rare -- a director who has no pretension to sending a message to his audience, or of showing the brilliance of his ‘ideas’. His films are pure, simple narration and are a strong cooling breeze blowing through a cluttered, musty room. EDUCATION 48 The process of learning - We are taught the very basics of the subject in question -- it is essentially a system of lies based on a multitude of false assumptions, but a necessary first step. In using the system, we make a series of catastrophic errors -- you learn to recover your mistakes. Flaws become apparent in the system you have learnt, and cast doubt on previous results. You begin to patch up holes -- you are recovering mistakes once more. You adapt the system to avoid errors, thus mastering it. Adaptation comes to a point where no system exists -- your education in this subject is complete. Of course, the wise would have no such system of learning... 49 That body and mind have been separated is the greatest crime against education. Even Plato understood that folly! JUSTICE 50 Today the world is monochromatic. Even the most free wills talk merely of shades of grey -- truly colour blind. 51 The socialist and the libertarian -- both are sure of the moral height of their cause, both are convinced of the ‘good’ of humanity, that a society given freedom or equality will mould itself into an ideal, into a world in which suffering has gone. Here they fight their battle, upon useless soil. Their goals are freedom or equality. Only to the colour-blind are side-effects relevant. 52 The contempt of politics comes when the battle-lines are drawn, and one finds oneself with a foot on either side. Worse still to find that one is not even on the battlefield. 53 On a subject that is incidental to justice (and indeed, only incidental,) that is law, it has been made too easy to ignore the roots of law; that is, violence has been ignored. For what is law, other than the threat of violence? And if violence is no longer necessary in the enforcement of law, well then, that is simply because the threat has become sufficient! But perhaps you wish to claim that law is rational, that it is built upon structures that work for the benefit of all? That maybe so, but would you in all seriousness claim that the masses are rational and that they work for the betterment of all? Does anyone? Can anyone be both rational and altruistic? All still open questions... that the law works in any way is not due to scientific thinking by seers and clairvoyants -- it is above all an accident... 54 Why capitalism works -- The side-effects (maybe the goal) of capitalism is the providing of a safe place for engineers and those creators and improvers who in every way increase the lot of mankind. It creates a place where they will not be enslaved and forced to build tombs and palaces, where they do not have to work in silence and in shadows. In their hands, the desire for power is merely a tool... when compared to the desire for control, in the art of the placement of power. 55 In order to renounce revenge, one must be capable of revenge. 56 No man is above the law -- in ages past, this meant something more; no man was above the lawmaker. In Europe today we have forgotten the lawmaker, without which law is merely an anachronism, an echo of past obedience. 57 The greatest error of racism is to bring race to the forefront of all valuation, as if it were the fundamental, most important thing -- what? Does this make tolerance an error too? 58 ‘Responsibility of the individual’, kin to ‘responsibility of society’ -- both require that blame must be apportioned. Both fail to notice their own insidious Aristotelian nature that ‘blame’ is an image, a thing-in-itself. Either way, the aim is to move blame from oneself. This suggests that one believes one can be blamed. Responsibility as an alibi... ISLAM 59 Attempts to describe Islam as needing a ‘Reformation’ are working on a misconception; they equate Islam with Christianity. For most of its history, however, Islam has exhibited the strength of the Old Testament; Allah was their God, capable of great good and great evil. The once scattered tribes of the Middle East grew into medicine, science, mathematics, they grew strong enough for dhimmitude. Recent years have seen a stagnation, a perceived and actual inferiority to the innovation of the Industrial Revolution. Allah is growing to be a God of all, a one, true God. Martyrdom has become a greater prize than material success, and institutions slowly consolidate power and attempt to impose life-degrading, moral law. Resentment has grown to an unstoppable size. In short, Islam is becoming more Christian. Perhaps the one saving grace of Islam is that it had no Roman Empire to conquer and replace. No centralisation, however, has meant there is little to attack or reject. “I am Christian, not Catholic,” Luther could say (although which is worse is hard to tell...,) “I protest.” What can a Muslim say? CHANGELING SPIRITS 60 There is today not merely a new spirit, but a new type of spirit forming among us, one that has sat among the ruins of Greece and Rome and Europe; a spirit which has sat where spirits are scarce and has grown as a result... a spirit that has not had the discipline to remain narrow, that picks at philosophy like a sparrow and flies like one too, in short bursts of furious energy... I name them the changeling spirits, for they love to leap across boundaries and scuff the lines, and never sit for too long in one place... the opposite of every classical philosopher. 61 The writings of these changelings are distinguished by an inability, a complete lack of desire, to conclude. Subjects will be touched upon lightly as a matter of course, and when any depths are plumbed there will remain a loophole, an escape route to avoid the terribleness of reaching a conclusion, of having to live that conclusion... but I might be wrong... 62 The lack of this type of spirit in America is possibly the fundamental divide between Europe and its progeny. It also explains that religious gulf; to changelings, the thought of eternal life, of eternal anything is horrific... life is in the boundaries, in variety and movement. America still holds a frontier spirit, a hard, narrow and above all strong will, and to the old, European changeling spirit this is terrible to behold. 63 It is the common belief among changelings that it can have no enemies, and the desire to destroy others, to destroy them, is merely a misunderstanding, something that can be rationalised out of the individual. Among changelings they are correct (how can those who stop short truly have enemies? Perhaps more painful, how can they have true friends?), but when confronted with the narrow, strong spirit they will patiently pick away, unweaving all the garish cloth that house a sharp, diamond interior. TODAY 64 Commuters -- There are those who see in commuters only ‘mindless zombies’ or wage-slaves. However, nowhere in England is there a haven for such quiet, calm contemplation for so many as on a London Tube. In the commuter we see such self-absorption; in travelling we see the closest to solitary thought that city-dwellers are capable of -- and witness the hostility toward those that break that contemplative silence! And notice that any conversation is no longer communication between two individuals but a theatre for those travellers who for whatever reason have awoken to their surroundings. What does it say of those who see nothing but zombies in the midst of so much mindfulness? 65 Enough of this reverence for self-awareness! It should be obvious to all that the animal that is man is completely incapable of such things! We are led to believe that a positing of reasons and excuses on to actions is all that is necessary for self-awareness, despite the fact that we are so often wrong! And even then, what is meant to be aware, and what of? What makes us unique in this world is our complete lack of self-awareness, our inability to see our own motives, our adding of a layer called ‘mind’ or ‘soul’ that is somehow distinct and separate and all-seeing. True self-awareness is animalistic and simple; it comes when the individual is their motives -- a household cat is self-aware, the owner is not. 66 An inventor once created a machine that would allow its occupant to sit in total silence, so that even the roar of their blood and the hiss of their breathing were nullified. So many years the inventor worked to perfect his device until finally it stood ready. The inventor stepped inside, but within the hour he had stepped out and thrashed the machine into pieces, weeping all the while. “What is wrong?” asked an onlooker, “Did it not work?” “Oh, it worked perfectly,” said the inventor, “But I could not stand the noise!” 67 “The individual is the newest creation” someone once said, and the truth of this statement is seen in American politics and its biggest topics -- in abortion, evolution and even drugs -- the points at which the rational individual, the ‘free-will’ can no longer be neatly self-contained. The end of individualism will not come, as so many believe, if the anti-abortionists or the creationists win (neither side will ever win) -- it will come when these questions are no longer considered important -- as in Europe. |