“Independence is for the very few, it is a privilege of the strong. Whoever attempts it enters a labyrinth, and multiplies a thousandfold the dangers of life. Not least of which is that no one can see how and where he loses his way, becomes lonely, and is torn piecemeal by some minotaur of conscience. If he fails, this happens so far from the comprehension of men that they cannot sympathise nor pity.”
--29, Part 2: The Free Spirit, Friedrich Nietzsche’s Beyond Good and Evil- Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future
While Nietzsche writes it beautifully, perhaps the simplified, layman version would be:
“If you insist on refusing social obligations and violating social norms, then life becomes very hard: you will be lonely and your conscience will bother you a lot. If you fail—i.e. the pain of being outcast exceeds the benefits of independence—then no one will give a damn.”
(The last part is almost tautological; if you’re lonely, then most people don’t care about you. The exception might be when one writes one’s experiences down, as Nietzsche probably did.)
--29, Part 2: The Free Spirit, Friedrich Nietzsche’s Beyond Good and Evil- Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future
While Nietzsche writes it beautifully, perhaps the simplified, layman version would be:
“If you insist on refusing social obligations and violating social norms, then life becomes very hard: you will be lonely and your conscience will bother you a lot. If you fail—i.e. the pain of being outcast exceeds the benefits of independence—then no one will give a damn.”
(The last part is almost tautological; if you’re lonely, then most people don’t care about you. The exception might be when one writes one’s experiences down, as Nietzsche probably did.)
I was actually thinking it applied better to cranks than generic ‘social obligations and norms’.
Also in this vein is Sebastian Marshall’s The Million Dollar Question.
A very interesting post. I don’t think that’s more than a small fraction of what’s going on, but I could believe it’s a fraction.