>Disfigured by puberty
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I think it's Neitzche's most terrifying statement.
I think of it as: you've taken God's life. Now you have to take responsibility for that killing. Will you take a level of responsibility that matches that of a God, or will you wallow in the realization that you are a demon who killed God for nothing?
Prophetic too.
Because what is he describing if not wokism?
That's precisely what he's getting at.
I still believe that we can take the mantel of responsibility from God, as humans, eventually. But it requires a maturity that we really don't have yet. We should be our own moral sovereigns, but we still live in far too authoritarian of a society to have enough people who would be willing to take that responsibility as it is. We need everyone to do it.
The average person is far, far worse at moral thinking today than a century ago. The bottom of the bell curve was never capable of building a conscience. The middle, though, is less literate and less able to engage with an idea for more than a minute or two, and actually forming your own moral compass requires mulling over hypotheticals for hours.
Dull people need instructions.
Average people need a prompt to get them started.
Intelligent people need guard rails to keep them humble.
Everyone needs an external source of morality, and traditional religion, when not infested with Gnostic parasites, is as good a fountain as we're ever going to get the chance to drink from.
I completely disagree.
I will say that the bottom of the IQ bell curve needs tradition, but their recognition of their own ignorance is why they don't rely on "confusin' the situation with yer fancy mathmatics'. Normally, they are going to do whatever works best for them, and then keep doing that because "if it ain't broke don't fix it". Traditions can still be co-opted, though.
Average people don't need a prompt to get them started. I actually think that is a major cultural disease of the authoritarianism of the Industrial Revolution. Human commodification promoted the idea that the average person should act like someone with less IQ: follow the instructions to prosperity... without ever taking initiative or responsibility. Thing is, the low IQ people do take initiative and responsibility, they just aren't always sure who to pre-plan. What we have today is a commodified society of people who don't take responsibility nor initiative, thanks to a syndicalist society.
Intelligent people need guard rails, but religions have typically been nothing more than a rationalization of their own ambition. Same with philosophy and ideology. I've said before, and I believe it to be true: the head of every religion and cult is an atheist. Whether it's the Pope, a prophet, the Sultan, a messiah, or a divine monarch; they all know they are not talking to God. It's why I'm an anti-theist. No institution can be trusted with the power of God. No institution is worthy of that power in the same way that no person is worthy of it.
I guess that's why I've simply deified the concept of truth. Truth isn't a moral system, but operating truthfully with a desire to benefit yourself and the others around you seems to be the best way to live life. It's certainly the way that people suffer and die the least. Moreover, truth is (by definition) external to one's self. Truth can only be internal when you create an abstraction in your head by creating a tautology or postulate. Of course it's 'true', you defined it to be true, but it is therefore not objective. If it is not an objective truth, it's not really the kind of truth we're talking about.
I think it’s more speaking to the death of the Christian religion. He’s approaching it from the idea that humans collectively need some sort of structure because they don’t have the knowledge, skill, or foresight to lead themselves into prosperity. He says “Must we ourselves becomes gods,”but the tone is disbelieving. Humans might become “gods” in the sense that we can set our own moral values and our own path, but other than that we would be gods the same way John Flynt is a woman.
That last sentence is the point. He speaks in metaphors. You're not going to literally will yourself into a God, unless you intend on becoming a political god-king.