WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.840 --> 00:00:04.759 Why do you keep choosing what destroys you? Nietzsche spent 2 00:00:04.799 --> 00:00:09.039 his life observing a pattern that repeats. Infinitely intelligent and 3 00:00:09.119 --> 00:00:12.640 capable people who never get anywhere, and not because the 4 00:00:12.720 --> 00:00:16.239 world conspired against them, not because they had bad luck, 5 00:00:16.839 --> 00:00:21.399 not because they lacked opportunity, but because they themselves, choice, 6 00:00:21.399 --> 00:00:25.160 by choice, day after day, built their own prison. The 7 00:00:25.239 --> 00:00:28.879 key is in their hands, it always has been, but 8 00:00:28.920 --> 00:00:31.879 they're afraid to use it, afraid of what they'll find 9 00:00:31.879 --> 00:00:35.039 on the other side of the door. Nietzsche wasn't just 10 00:00:35.119 --> 00:00:38.320 the philosopher who declared the death of God. He was 11 00:00:38.320 --> 00:00:42.119 someone deeply concerned with what makes a human being truly unhappy. 12 00:00:42.679 --> 00:00:46.320 While other thinkers fantasized about what makes us happy, he 13 00:00:46.399 --> 00:00:50.560 studied the opposite, what destroys us from within, And the 14 00:00:50.640 --> 00:00:54.079 answer he found is brutal. We are not victims of life, 15 00:00:54.560 --> 00:00:58.240 We are victims of ourselves. If you constantly seek pleasure 16 00:00:58.280 --> 00:01:02.399 and comfort, Nietsch think you may have already lost, because 17 00:01:02.439 --> 00:01:05.599 the first step toward misery is pursuing comfort as the 18 00:01:05.680 --> 00:01:09.959 ultimate goal of existence. He saw in this a terrifying 19 00:01:10.000 --> 00:01:14.239 warning about humanity's future. The image of the last man. 20 00:01:14.920 --> 00:01:17.599 The last man is a creature that emerges when old 21 00:01:17.680 --> 00:01:21.640 values disappear with nothing to replace them. He's someone reduced 22 00:01:21.640 --> 00:01:26.359 to seeking only comfort and avoiding any discomfort, without general 23 00:01:26.400 --> 00:01:30.599 direction in life, without purpose that justifies the effort. For 24 00:01:30.680 --> 00:01:33.879 nietzsure this was an enormous opportunity in the fall of 25 00:01:33.879 --> 00:01:37.879 traditional values, but also a terrible prospect that we all 26 00:01:37.879 --> 00:01:41.799 become passive and lazy people. The last man desires comfort 27 00:01:41.799 --> 00:01:45.280 in all things. He sees no meaning in struggle or effort. 28 00:01:45.760 --> 00:01:48.879 He's not creative enough to create his own values. His 29 00:01:49.000 --> 00:01:51.519 will is not strong enough to motivate him to action. 30 00:01:52.280 --> 00:01:55.480 He allows life to pass without taking any control over it. 31 00:01:55.959 --> 00:01:59.480 He has no mastery over himself or the world, and 32 00:01:59.560 --> 00:02:02.680 so he moves through existence in a form of gentle despair. 33 00:02:03.480 --> 00:02:06.120 And the most terrible thing is that the last man 34 00:02:06.200 --> 00:02:11.199 doesn't perceive his own misery. He blinks, he smiles, He says, 35 00:02:11.879 --> 00:02:16.520 we invented happiness. But this happiness is empty, its absence 36 00:02:16.560 --> 00:02:21.240 of pain, not presence of meaning, its comfort not fulfillment, 37 00:02:21.759 --> 00:02:26.199 its distraction not purpose. Nietzsche saw the last man as 38 00:02:26.240 --> 00:02:30.560 the greatest danger to humanity, not because he's monstrous, but 39 00:02:30.599 --> 00:02:34.719 because he's mediocre. Because he represents the systematic waste of 40 00:02:34.759 --> 00:02:39.199 all human potential because he transforms creatures capable of greatness 41 00:02:39.639 --> 00:02:43.759 into passive consumers of comfort. And the worst part, because 42 00:02:43.759 --> 00:02:47.960 he's satisfied with it. He seeks nothing more. He misses nothing. 43 00:02:48.479 --> 00:02:53.280 He just exists, comfortably empty. Each day is apparently pleasant 44 00:02:53.520 --> 00:02:56.240 due to the endless pursuit of comfort, but in the 45 00:02:56.319 --> 00:02:59.800 long run, there's a huge hole, a void that cannot 46 00:02:59.800 --> 00:03:03.759 be filled with more comfort, because what's missing isn't pleasure, 47 00:03:04.280 --> 00:03:08.479 its meaning, its purpose. It's the feeling of building something 48 00:03:08.479 --> 00:03:13.360 that matters, of becoming someone, of living, not just existing. 49 00:03:13.879 --> 00:03:16.400 It's not clear if one day this person will wake 50 00:03:16.479 --> 00:03:19.800 up and realize their existence was for nothing, or if 51 00:03:19.840 --> 00:03:23.560 they'll persist in this unhappiness until death, but one thing 52 00:03:23.639 --> 00:03:27.039 is certain, it would be a tragic waste of human potential. 53 00:03:27.639 --> 00:03:30.759 Nietzsure thought that to access great joys, we must seek 54 00:03:30.879 --> 00:03:34.759 great discomforts. This is a central theme throughout his philosophy, 55 00:03:35.319 --> 00:03:38.599 whether in the image of Zarathustra descending from enlightenment to 56 00:03:38.639 --> 00:03:42.080 be despised by the world, or through the joyful and 57 00:03:42.240 --> 00:03:46.840 powerful person who strengthens their resolve through continuous suffering. For 58 00:03:46.960 --> 00:03:50.840 him truly valuable happiness only comes through the conscious choice 59 00:03:50.879 --> 00:03:54.680 to suffer, and this for two fundamental reasons. The first 60 00:03:54.759 --> 00:03:59.159 is quite straightforward. Too much comfort makes us fragile. Nietzsche 61 00:03:59.280 --> 00:04:02.240 had no optimy, mystic vision of the world. He knew 62 00:04:02.240 --> 00:04:05.960 that suffering is inevitable, that life will bring difficulties whether 63 00:04:06.000 --> 00:04:09.080 you're prepared or not, and that these difficulties will be 64 00:04:09.120 --> 00:04:12.800 even more painful and destructive if they catch us unprepared, 65 00:04:13.479 --> 00:04:16.439 if we don't develop the capacity to endure them. The 66 00:04:16.480 --> 00:04:19.199 only way to become strong enough to endure life's inevitable 67 00:04:19.240 --> 00:04:23.759 suffering is to choose the path of suffering voluntarily. It's training, 68 00:04:24.360 --> 00:04:29.240 it's gradually exposing ourselves to increasing discomforts. It's building tolerance. 69 00:04:30.000 --> 00:04:32.600 Just as you can't expect to run a marathon without training, 70 00:04:32.959 --> 00:04:36.040 you can't expect to endure life's crises without having developed 71 00:04:36.079 --> 00:04:40.000 emotional and psychological resistance. Just as a new song can 72 00:04:40.040 --> 00:04:42.800 seem annoying at first, but over time we come to 73 00:04:42.879 --> 00:04:46.000 love it through familiarity, Nietsure wants us to learn to 74 00:04:46.079 --> 00:04:50.959 appreciate discomfort through continuous exposure. Not because suffering is good 75 00:04:50.959 --> 00:04:55.199 in itself. He doesn't romanticize pain, but because it prepares 76 00:04:55.279 --> 00:04:58.120 us for the inevitable, because it makes us capable of 77 00:04:58.160 --> 00:05:02.000 facing whatever comes without breaking. The second reason is more 78 00:05:02.000 --> 00:05:05.879 subtle but deeply insightful. The more pain we endure, the 79 00:05:05.879 --> 00:05:09.879 more our freedom increases. After all, to do anything worthwhile, 80 00:05:10.120 --> 00:05:13.000 we have to be able to endure suffering. Whether it's 81 00:05:13.000 --> 00:05:17.279 building a great project like Alexander the Great, creating fantastic 82 00:05:17.399 --> 00:05:20.560 art like da Vinci, or simply becoming masters of our 83 00:05:20.600 --> 00:05:25.240 own lives, will have to endure difficulties. For nietzsure, only 84 00:05:25.279 --> 00:05:27.839 through learning suffering do we cultivate the strength to be 85 00:05:27.920 --> 00:05:32.040 truly free. How autonomous we are is directly proportional to 86 00:05:32.120 --> 00:05:34.519 how much we're willing to endure to achieve our will. 87 00:05:35.079 --> 00:05:38.680 And if we can't endure discomfort, then we won't be free. 88 00:05:39.120 --> 00:05:42.800 We'll be slaves to our own limitations, prisoners of our fragility. 89 00:05:43.480 --> 00:05:46.879 Think of it this way. Someone who can't endure criticism 90 00:05:47.040 --> 00:05:50.959 can't build anything public. Someone who can't handle physical effort 91 00:05:51.120 --> 00:05:54.920 can't sculpt their own body. Someone who can't tolerate financial 92 00:05:55.040 --> 00:05:59.160 risk can't be an entrepreneur. Someone who can't endure temporary 93 00:05:59.160 --> 00:06:03.279 solitude can't do develop independent thinking. In each case, the 94 00:06:03.360 --> 00:06:08.160 inability to endure specific discomfort becomes a prison that limits 95 00:06:08.240 --> 00:06:11.639 what that person can do or become. And the more 96 00:06:11.639 --> 00:06:15.000 we expand our capacity to endure different types of discomfort, 97 00:06:15.560 --> 00:06:20.360 the more possibilities open up. Not because discomfort itself is valuable, 98 00:06:20.800 --> 00:06:23.720 but because it's the price of admission for almost everything 99 00:06:23.800 --> 00:06:26.759 worthwhile in life. It's the toll we have to pay 100 00:06:26.800 --> 00:06:28.920 to cross the bridge between who we are and who 101 00:06:28.959 --> 00:06:32.120 we could be. But why so much emphasis on strength? 102 00:06:32.519 --> 00:06:36.000 What is this power? For? Nietzschere is often presented as 103 00:06:36.040 --> 00:06:39.319 a philosopher obsessed with power, and there's truth to that. 104 00:06:39.879 --> 00:06:41.680 He thought we all have a will to power that 105 00:06:41.720 --> 00:06:46.000 wants to exercise itself in the world and in ourselves. However, 106 00:06:46.399 --> 00:06:49.680 he's not a fetishest of power. He thinks power and 107 00:06:49.720 --> 00:06:54.040 strength are important prerequisites for human flourishing. This is best 108 00:06:54.160 --> 00:06:57.319 illustrated in how he thinks people behave when they're powerless. 109 00:06:58.040 --> 00:07:01.839 For him, powerlessness is not not virtue. It brings out 110 00:07:01.839 --> 00:07:05.480 the worst of human nature, and this manifests primarily in 111 00:07:05.519 --> 00:07:09.360 his concept of resentiment. Resentiment is an emotion we're all 112 00:07:09.360 --> 00:07:13.720 familiar with. Envy arises when we see someone more prosperous 113 00:07:13.879 --> 00:07:17.279 or successful in a field we value. But envy is 114 00:07:17.360 --> 00:07:22.079 not motivational, it's destructive. Its goal is not to elevate 115 00:07:22.160 --> 00:07:25.079 us to their level, but to bring them down to ours, 116 00:07:25.079 --> 00:07:28.000 to relieve our resentment without having to face the fact 117 00:07:28.040 --> 00:07:31.120 that we may be inadequate according to our own standards. 118 00:07:31.519 --> 00:07:35.639 This is evidently an unpleasant emotion to feel, and Nietzschure 119 00:07:35.720 --> 00:07:38.879 isn't the first to point it out. The resentful person 120 00:07:39.319 --> 00:07:42.160 lives in a constant state of denial about what they 121 00:07:42.199 --> 00:07:45.040 really want. If I resent a person with a better 122 00:07:45.079 --> 00:07:48.120 body than mine, this reveals that I desire the physical 123 00:07:48.160 --> 00:07:51.560 position therein, but if I'm powerless, I don't have the 124 00:07:51.600 --> 00:07:56.600 capacity to achieve that success. Instead, the only route is 125 00:07:56.639 --> 00:08:00.199 to declare that it's not a position worth having. We 126 00:08:00.319 --> 00:08:04.560 become the fox from Aesop's fable, who, when he can't 127 00:08:04.560 --> 00:08:08.600 reach the desired grapes, declares they were probably sour anyway. 128 00:08:09.279 --> 00:08:14.199 But this self deception cannot bring true satisfaction because it 129 00:08:14.240 --> 00:08:18.240 represses what we truly desire. If we resent something, we 130 00:08:18.319 --> 00:08:21.319 can't strive for it, even if deep down it's our 131 00:08:21.360 --> 00:08:25.319 truest desire. And the cruelty of this trick is evident. 132 00:08:25.839 --> 00:08:29.319 It converts what could have been motivation to strengthen our 133 00:08:29.360 --> 00:08:33.159 will into a guarantee that will never be satisfied. What 134 00:08:33.240 --> 00:08:37.559 could have been a temporary obstacle becomes permanent amputation of 135 00:08:37.600 --> 00:08:41.639 our route to happiness, and it doesn't stop there. Resentiment 136 00:08:41.799 --> 00:08:44.600 also encourages us to hate the object of our repressed 137 00:08:44.639 --> 00:08:47.480 desire and try to take revenge on a life we 138 00:08:47.519 --> 00:08:51.799 feel has wronged us. We start developing entire moralities based 139 00:08:51.799 --> 00:08:55.759 on our powerlessness. We declare that what we cannot have 140 00:08:56.480 --> 00:09:00.799 actually shouldn't be desired by anyone, that it's immoral, that 141 00:09:00.879 --> 00:09:05.279 it's superficial, that it's empty. And so the resentful person 142 00:09:05.320 --> 00:09:09.320 becomes a preacher not of virtues he genuinely values, but 143 00:09:09.399 --> 00:09:13.480 of prohibitions based on his own incapacities. He builds an 144 00:09:13.600 --> 00:09:17.399 entire philosophical system to justify why everyone should avoid what 145 00:09:17.440 --> 00:09:20.919 he secretly desires but cannot achieve, and the more people 146 00:09:20.960 --> 00:09:25.080 he convinces, the more validated his narrative of self deception feels. 147 00:09:25.600 --> 00:09:29.399 This is one of Nietzsche's most brutal psychological insights because 148 00:09:29.399 --> 00:09:32.399 it forces us to question how many of our moral 149 00:09:32.440 --> 00:09:36.200 beliefs are genuine and how many are just rationalizations of 150 00:09:36.240 --> 00:09:40.360 our powerlessness, and according to Nietzsche, we fall into this 151 00:09:40.440 --> 00:09:45.000 state of powerlessness because we fear power. We associate it 152 00:09:45.080 --> 00:09:49.000 with some of history's greatest atrocities without recognizing that all 153 00:09:49.039 --> 00:09:53.360 of humanity's great goods also required power. And the power 154 00:09:53.480 --> 00:09:57.080 Niature has in mind is not merely physical. It implies 155 00:09:57.120 --> 00:10:00.519 a kind of personal overcoming. It means reft using to 156 00:10:00.559 --> 00:10:04.559 submit your will to another's, recognizing yourself as sovereign of 157 00:10:04.600 --> 00:10:08.039 your own life with all the crushing pressure and radical 158 00:10:08.080 --> 00:10:12.120 freedom that implies. It means not allowing others, morality, or 159 00:10:12.159 --> 00:10:15.720 taste to dictate what you do, being completely in control 160 00:10:15.759 --> 00:10:19.200 and taking full responsibility for existence. It's easy for this 161 00:10:19.240 --> 00:10:22.320 to become superficial wisdom. But let's pause for a moment 162 00:10:22.360 --> 00:10:25.559 and consider how radical this idea of freedom is. According 163 00:10:25.600 --> 00:10:28.559 to Nietzsche, the truly free are not subject even to 164 00:10:28.559 --> 00:10:31.840 the rules of morality. We would take full ownership of 165 00:10:31.879 --> 00:10:35.559 our decisions and refuse to submit our will to anyone else's. 166 00:10:36.440 --> 00:10:40.360 It's an independence of thought, will, and action greater than 167 00:10:40.360 --> 00:10:44.080 that proposed by almost any other philosopher. And yet it's 168 00:10:44.120 --> 00:10:46.879 what Nietzschure suggests we begin to do in order not 169 00:10:46.960 --> 00:10:50.840 to be consumed by resentment and weakness, and, contrary to 170 00:10:50.879 --> 00:10:55.679 popular belief, this form of power eventually becomes benevolent by itself. 171 00:10:56.279 --> 00:10:59.360 As he expresses, the state in which we harm others 172 00:10:59.799 --> 00:11:01.919 is rarely as pleasant as the one in which we 173 00:11:02.000 --> 00:11:06.840 benefit our peers. This may seem counterintuitive. How would someone 174 00:11:06.919 --> 00:11:10.480 completely free of moral restraints not become a tyrant? But 175 00:11:10.559 --> 00:11:13.279 Nietzsche had an answer for this. He believed that the 176 00:11:13.279 --> 00:11:17.600 truly powerful person doesn't need to dominate others, doesn't need 177 00:11:17.639 --> 00:11:21.919 to prove anything, doesn't need to compensate for internal insecurities 178 00:11:22.000 --> 00:11:26.399 through external displays of strength. True power, for Natsure, is 179 00:11:26.519 --> 00:11:30.320 silent and self contained. It's the capacity to say no 180 00:11:30.440 --> 00:11:35.679 when necessary, to establish boundaries, to stand firm in your convictions. 181 00:11:36.200 --> 00:11:39.120 But it's also the capacity to be generous without expecting 182 00:11:39.200 --> 00:11:42.840 anything in return, to be kind without it being interpreted 183 00:11:42.840 --> 00:11:46.360 as weakness, to help others, not out of moral obligation, 184 00:11:46.759 --> 00:11:50.320 but from an overflow of internal strength. The resentful and 185 00:11:50.399 --> 00:11:54.399 weak person needs external moral rules to behave well, because 186 00:11:54.440 --> 00:11:57.440 without them, their envy and bitterness would lead them to 187 00:11:57.519 --> 00:12:01.720 destructive actions. But the truly power person doesn't need these 188 00:12:01.799 --> 00:12:05.679 chains because their inner strength is so abundant that it 189 00:12:05.799 --> 00:12:10.440 naturally expresses itself constructively. This is the paradox of Nietzsche 190 00:12:10.440 --> 00:12:13.519 in power. The more you have, the less you need 191 00:12:13.600 --> 00:12:16.480 to display it or use it against others. But I 192 00:12:16.559 --> 00:12:20.039 want to dig deeper into this theme of independence, because 193 00:12:20.039 --> 00:12:23.240 if there's something Nietzsche considers a sure route to despair, 194 00:12:24.000 --> 00:12:27.960 it's being too influenced by the crowds. In Satra's play 195 00:12:28.279 --> 00:12:32.399 No Exit, the character Garsan famously closes the drama by saying, 196 00:12:32.840 --> 00:12:36.159 hell is other people. This line was taken out of 197 00:12:36.200 --> 00:12:40.679 context and misinterpreted to portray Sarcha as a profound misanthrope, 198 00:12:40.759 --> 00:12:44.159 But the truth is more complicated. Sartra was referring to 199 00:12:44.200 --> 00:12:47.360 the human tendency to fear other's judgment and for our 200 00:12:47.399 --> 00:12:51.240 self image to be regulated through our peers opinions. Nietzsche 201 00:12:51.320 --> 00:12:54.399 shares this concern, and he points out a human tendency 202 00:12:54.399 --> 00:12:57.360 that can cause us much misery, remaining too long in 203 00:12:57.440 --> 00:13:00.679 others company, so that we become alienated from our own character. 204 00:13:01.440 --> 00:13:04.399 One of the images nietzsure uses repeatedly is that of 205 00:13:04.440 --> 00:13:08.759 the herd. This concept encompasses most of society, and he 206 00:13:08.840 --> 00:13:12.279 saw them as having broadly speaking, the same opinions and 207 00:13:12.320 --> 00:13:16.120 life perspectives. But he didn't think people were naturally this way. 208 00:13:16.360 --> 00:13:20.279 He said, it's within almost anyone's power to cultivate their individuality, 209 00:13:20.720 --> 00:13:23.679 to be more satisfied, to achieve a greater level of 210 00:13:23.720 --> 00:13:28.159 self development and understanding. However, in his opinion, the herd 211 00:13:28.240 --> 00:13:31.720 has a violent reaction to any attempt to differentiate oneself. 212 00:13:32.240 --> 00:13:36.399 Above all, the herd values predictability, and the more similar 213 00:13:36.440 --> 00:13:38.960 people are to each other and to their own pasts, 214 00:13:39.399 --> 00:13:42.960 the more predictable they can be. Therefore, the herd is 215 00:13:43.000 --> 00:13:47.000 an obstacle for anyone trying to embrace radical freedom and individuation, 216 00:13:47.879 --> 00:13:50.720 and it will exert social and physical pressure to return 217 00:13:50.720 --> 00:13:53.440 them to a narrow form of thinking and living. And 218 00:13:53.519 --> 00:13:57.039 this pressure is incredibly strong because it doesn't come only 219 00:13:57.080 --> 00:14:01.919 from outside, but also from within. We internalize the Herd's 220 00:14:01.960 --> 00:14:05.480 expectations from an early age. They become part of how 221 00:14:05.480 --> 00:14:09.320 we think about ourselves, of what we consider possible, of 222 00:14:09.360 --> 00:14:13.600 what we consider acceptable. And when we try to differentiate ourselves, 223 00:14:14.000 --> 00:14:18.120 we're not just fighting external pressure, we're fighting an entire 224 00:14:18.240 --> 00:14:23.039 internal structure we've built based on others expectations. This is 225 00:14:23.039 --> 00:14:26.879 why individuation is so difficult. It's not just a matter 226 00:14:26.960 --> 00:14:30.639 of doing different things. It's a matter of completely rebuilding 227 00:14:30.679 --> 00:14:34.399 your internal value system, of questioning every belief you have, 228 00:14:35.080 --> 00:14:38.000 of asking is this really mine? Or did I just 229 00:14:38.120 --> 00:14:42.120 internalize it from my environment? And in most cases you'll 230 00:14:42.159 --> 00:14:44.519 discover that much of what you think is you is 231 00:14:44.559 --> 00:14:49.039 actually a reflection of others expectations. By itself, this social 232 00:14:49.080 --> 00:14:52.960 pressure wouldn't necessarily be seen as a bad thing, after all, 233 00:14:53.279 --> 00:14:57.679 every society needs certain norms to function. But Nietzsche doesn't 234 00:14:57.720 --> 00:15:01.559 see this as the subject genuinely overcome whatever impulse they 235 00:15:01.639 --> 00:15:06.480 have that's unacceptable to the herd, but rather repressing those impulses, 236 00:15:07.039 --> 00:15:11.559 pushing them down, denying they exist. And it's this repression 237 00:15:11.600 --> 00:15:16.279 that causes deep dissatisfaction and unhappiness. It can even reach 238 00:15:16.480 --> 00:15:20.279 unconscious levels, and we'll spend our entire lives seeking an 239 00:15:20.279 --> 00:15:25.399 itch we can't find or scratch, in constant dissatisfaction without 240 00:15:25.480 --> 00:15:28.240 any clue about the cause. This is the fate that 241 00:15:28.320 --> 00:15:31.519 awaits us if we give ourselves completely to the crowd. 242 00:15:32.200 --> 00:15:36.519 It's no wonder that later psychoanalytic thinkers like jung admired 243 00:15:36.600 --> 00:15:41.120 Nietzsche's insight into the inner workings of the mind itself. However, 244 00:15:41.480 --> 00:15:45.320 unlike some monastic thinkers, Nietzschea doesn't believe we should spend 245 00:15:45.399 --> 00:15:49.200 our entire lives in solitude. One of the main conflicts 246 00:15:49.240 --> 00:15:53.039 within Zarathustra's character is the tension between his impulse to 247 00:15:53.120 --> 00:15:56.320 go out and interact with people due to his great 248 00:15:56.360 --> 00:15:59.600 love for humanity, and his impulse to withdraw to his 249 00:15:59.679 --> 00:16:04.120 cave in perfectly individuated solitude. And this is not a 250 00:16:04.159 --> 00:16:07.480 conflict that's resolved once and for all. It's a constant 251 00:16:07.559 --> 00:16:12.039 tension that must be navigated continuously. Zarathustra descends from the 252 00:16:12.080 --> 00:16:15.759 mountain driven by love and compassion. He wants to share 253 00:16:15.799 --> 00:16:19.000 his wisdom, he wants to help people become more than 254 00:16:19.039 --> 00:16:22.440 they are. But when he's among them, he feels the 255 00:16:22.440 --> 00:16:26.919 weight of conformity, the pressure to adapt, the temptation to 256 00:16:27.000 --> 00:16:31.159 dissolve into the crowd. So he returns to solitude, not 257 00:16:31.279 --> 00:16:34.799 out of contempt for humanity, but to recover his essence, 258 00:16:35.440 --> 00:16:38.559 to remember who he is, to reconnect with his own 259 00:16:38.639 --> 00:16:41.200 inner voice that was drowned out by the noise of 260 00:16:41.240 --> 00:16:45.960 other's opinions and then strengthened by solitude. He descends again, 261 00:16:46.480 --> 00:16:49.919 and the cycle continues. I believe there's a deep lesson 262 00:16:49.960 --> 00:16:52.600 here for all of us. The question of how to 263 00:16:52.679 --> 00:16:55.799 balance our individuation with our interaction with others is an 264 00:16:55.840 --> 00:16:59.960 open question, and it's one that must be constantly reevaluated. 265 00:17:00.679 --> 00:17:04.359 There's no fixed formula, no perfect balance that works forever. 266 00:17:04.960 --> 00:17:09.559 It's a continuous dance between connection and solitude, between community 267 00:17:09.759 --> 00:17:14.599 and individuality, between giving to others and preserving yourself. But 268 00:17:14.680 --> 00:17:18.240 nietzsure warns us about the possibility of becoming so involved 269 00:17:18.279 --> 00:17:22.039 in crowds and communities that we forget ourselves. We become 270 00:17:22.119 --> 00:17:25.759 strangers to our own characters. We lose any awareness of 271 00:17:25.799 --> 00:17:29.000 what makes us happy or fulfilled, or even of what 272 00:17:29.079 --> 00:17:33.200 makes us miserable. We become emotionally numb, and we walk 273 00:17:33.240 --> 00:17:38.240 around with glazed dissatisfaction, aware that something is wrong, but 274 00:17:38.359 --> 00:17:42.440 unable to identify what. For nietzscha this is a lamentable 275 00:17:42.480 --> 00:17:46.519 state because it's unpleasant and unsatisfying, But it's also a 276 00:17:46.559 --> 00:17:49.519 waste of everything unique and wonderful we could have added 277 00:17:49.559 --> 00:17:52.400 to the world. There are few among us who don't 278 00:17:52.400 --> 00:17:54.799 have to deal with the trials and tribulations of being 279 00:17:54.880 --> 00:17:59.039 part of a community. We're social animals, and it's hard 280 00:17:59.039 --> 00:18:02.279 to live without others company. But Nietzsche reminds us that 281 00:18:02.319 --> 00:18:05.480 we shouldn't forget our own wills just because we repress 282 00:18:05.480 --> 00:18:08.759 our desires to please others. And now we'll see a 283 00:18:08.759 --> 00:18:12.400 warning not always associated with Nietzsche, but which I believe 284 00:18:12.440 --> 00:18:16.079 is a key part of his overall philosophy. Nietzsche is 285 00:18:16.119 --> 00:18:19.839 often associated with a particular type of thinker. He writes 286 00:18:19.880 --> 00:18:23.039 with a passionate and irritated style that gives the impression 287 00:18:23.160 --> 00:18:27.039 he's an extremely serious man, tormented by what he saw 288 00:18:27.200 --> 00:18:31.160 as the philosophical foolishness of people and society around him. 289 00:18:31.279 --> 00:18:35.599 And in this characterization we lose the emphasis Nietzsche placed 290 00:18:35.720 --> 00:18:38.880 on a light and gentle approach to life, and that 291 00:18:38.960 --> 00:18:42.240 he saw excessive seriousness as a sure sign of a 292 00:18:42.279 --> 00:18:46.480 miserable person. But Nietzsche has a very particular view of 293 00:18:46.519 --> 00:18:50.240 what he considers seriousness. He sees it as an attitude 294 00:18:50.319 --> 00:18:54.319 toward life that is fundamentally unchangeable and not playful, one 295 00:18:54.319 --> 00:18:58.079 that considers almost everything as off limits, as something grave 296 00:18:58.200 --> 00:19:02.240 and heavy that cannot be touched with lightness. According to Nietzsche, 297 00:19:02.559 --> 00:19:06.480 this permeates us with a kind of artificial seriousness, putting 298 00:19:06.519 --> 00:19:09.359 too much pressure both on us and on our lives 299 00:19:09.359 --> 00:19:12.680 to be a certain way, to correspond to certain ideals, 300 00:19:13.160 --> 00:19:17.079 to reach certain standards, and this can deprive existence of 301 00:19:17.119 --> 00:19:21.680 its fundamental wonder of its openness, of its possibility for 302 00:19:21.759 --> 00:19:25.519 surprise and transformation. It means we get so involved in 303 00:19:25.559 --> 00:19:28.240 how things should be that we forget to enjoy the 304 00:19:28.279 --> 00:19:31.759 world as it actually exists. We get so caught up 305 00:19:31.759 --> 00:19:34.680 in our judgments about what's right and wrong, good and bad, 306 00:19:35.160 --> 00:19:38.720 that we lose the ability to simply experience life, to 307 00:19:38.799 --> 00:19:42.759 play with it, to dance through it. This observation is 308 00:19:42.799 --> 00:19:46.279 an extension of many earlier thinkers, from the Buddhists to 309 00:19:46.319 --> 00:19:49.599 the Stoics. It's been pointed out that our attachment to 310 00:19:49.640 --> 00:19:53.039 people and things not under our control will bring us 311 00:19:53.119 --> 00:19:56.599 unhappiness in the long run, that we suffer not because 312 00:19:56.640 --> 00:19:59.720 of things themselves, but because of our expectations about how 313 00:19:59.759 --> 00:20:03.359 they ca should be. Nietzsche simply extends this thinking to 314 00:20:03.400 --> 00:20:06.319 the area of life to which we're very attached, the 315 00:20:06.359 --> 00:20:10.440 area of morality. For him, calling something good is clinging 316 00:20:10.519 --> 00:20:13.480 to a particular way the world should be. In this way, 317 00:20:13.799 --> 00:20:17.240 Nietzsche manages to surpass the stoics and frames our own 318 00:20:17.279 --> 00:20:20.160 moral system as an attachment that weighs on our characters 319 00:20:20.160 --> 00:20:24.039 and thoughts, leading us to despair. On the other hand, 320 00:20:24.240 --> 00:20:26.960 he speaks of the joyful thinker who is free from 321 00:20:27.000 --> 00:20:31.599 these concerns, who has overcome traditional definitions of morality and 322 00:20:31.759 --> 00:20:35.839 value and can instead dance through life. This is part 323 00:20:35.880 --> 00:20:38.960 of the doctrine of amorphati, or love of your fate. 324 00:20:39.839 --> 00:20:42.839 He says that ideally we shouldn't want anything to be different, 325 00:20:43.599 --> 00:20:47.960 not forward or backward for all eternity. We should have 326 00:20:48.039 --> 00:20:50.759 spirits so strong that we could rejoice in what life 327 00:20:50.799 --> 00:20:54.039 brings us. But this only works if we free ourselves 328 00:20:54.039 --> 00:20:56.680 from the instinct to judge that we inherited from older 329 00:20:56.680 --> 00:21:01.519 philosophies and develop the power to rejoice in life unpleasant aspects. 330 00:21:01.960 --> 00:21:05.039 There's a big difference between someone who is cheerful because 331 00:21:05.079 --> 00:21:08.440 they've never faced a troubling question and someone who has 332 00:21:08.440 --> 00:21:12.480 gone through those questions and discovered a deep love for life. 333 00:21:12.480 --> 00:21:15.079 On the other hand, this doctrine of love of fate 334 00:21:15.480 --> 00:21:18.960 is what will explore next, and in doing so we'll 335 00:21:19.000 --> 00:21:23.079 illuminate the final distinction. Niatzsure makes between the miserable and 336 00:21:23.119 --> 00:21:26.359 the joyful, and that's the difference between saying yes to 337 00:21:26.440 --> 00:21:29.839 life and saying no to it. If we consider together 338 00:21:29.960 --> 00:21:33.359 all the things Niatsure thinks are conducive to our pronounced misery, 339 00:21:33.960 --> 00:21:39.000 things like hatred of discomfort, fear of power, contempt for individualization, 340 00:21:39.400 --> 00:21:43.240 and refusal to let go of traditional valuations, they all 341 00:21:43.279 --> 00:21:46.279 have something in common, and that is that they're denying 342 00:21:46.359 --> 00:21:50.440 some aspect of life, refusing to rejoice in it. The 343 00:21:50.440 --> 00:21:53.480 one who hates suffering says no to suffering and runs 344 00:21:53.480 --> 00:21:57.079 from it, while the person who fears individualization or power 345 00:21:57.319 --> 00:22:00.839 does the same with their object of terror. Finally, the 346 00:22:00.920 --> 00:22:04.839 person obsessed with morality refuses to acknowledge their radical freedom 347 00:22:05.319 --> 00:22:08.640 and chains their possibilities with links forged from good and evil. 348 00:22:09.279 --> 00:22:13.480 In each case, nietzscha thinks we're denying some fundamental aspect 349 00:22:13.519 --> 00:22:16.640 of life, and therefore the solution is to embrace that 350 00:22:16.799 --> 00:22:20.519 aspect instead. So he replaces our hatred of pain with 351 00:22:20.559 --> 00:22:24.200 an active search for it, fear of power with will 352 00:22:24.240 --> 00:22:29.640 to power, contempt for individualization with love for the individual's idiosyncrasies, 353 00:22:30.200 --> 00:22:34.039 and obsession with morality with a revaluation of all values 354 00:22:34.240 --> 00:22:38.039 an embrace of radical freedom. In each aspect. Where we 355 00:22:38.079 --> 00:22:41.160 have an instinct to feel rejection towards some part of life, 356 00:22:41.559 --> 00:22:45.079 Nietschure stops us and forces us to face our fear 357 00:22:45.680 --> 00:22:49.200 and embrace it with love instead. This theme is perhaps 358 00:22:49.200 --> 00:22:52.720 most marked in his doctrine of eternal recurrence. This is 359 00:22:52.799 --> 00:22:56.279 Nietzsche's thought experiment that asks us to imagine that time's 360 00:22:56.400 --> 00:22:59.440 arrow bends into a circle, and that our lives will 361 00:22:59.440 --> 00:23:03.119 repeat again, again and again for all eternity. Then he 362 00:23:03.200 --> 00:23:06.599 asks us what our honest emotional reaction is to this situation. 363 00:23:07.480 --> 00:23:09.640 Are we filled with dread at having to live life 364 00:23:09.720 --> 00:23:12.599 over and over with no end in sight? Or are 365 00:23:12.599 --> 00:23:16.000 we filled with joy, loving life so much that we're 366 00:23:16.039 --> 00:23:19.359 thrilled to reunite with it once more. He says that 367 00:23:19.400 --> 00:23:22.279 if we adopt the first attitude, we're at a fundamental 368 00:23:22.359 --> 00:23:25.400 level saying no to life. We're spitting in the face 369 00:23:25.440 --> 00:23:29.160 of our own existence and participating in a futile exercise. 370 00:23:29.759 --> 00:23:32.680 Whatever our opinion about the relative value of our lives, 371 00:23:33.039 --> 00:23:36.039 we're immersed in them now, and the only sensible root 372 00:23:36.119 --> 00:23:39.359 forward is to embrace them, love them, and say yes 373 00:23:39.400 --> 00:23:43.240 to them. This is explicitly not a rational doctrine. It 374 00:23:43.319 --> 00:23:46.079 only makes sense to adopt the perspective on life that's 375 00:23:46.160 --> 00:23:49.960 most practical, and loving life is the best option available. 376 00:23:50.480 --> 00:23:54.519 Amor FARTI demands much of our attitude. It suggests that 377 00:23:54.559 --> 00:23:58.440 we smile at our pain and love whatever tragedy befalls us. 378 00:23:59.240 --> 00:24:02.440 It means being great grateful that we've endured illnesses, and 379 00:24:02.519 --> 00:24:05.240 doing all this not with a soft, tranquil heart, as 380 00:24:05.240 --> 00:24:09.359 a Stoic philosopher might, but with passionate joy. Here's the 381 00:24:09.400 --> 00:24:13.720 crucial difference between Nietzsche and the Stoics. The Stoics propose 382 00:24:13.839 --> 00:24:18.839 tranquil acceptance, a kind of serene resignation before fate. They say, 383 00:24:19.480 --> 00:24:23.519 accept what you cannot change without disturbance. But nietzscha goes 384 00:24:23.599 --> 00:24:27.480 much further. He doesn't just want acceptance. He wants celebration. 385 00:24:28.079 --> 00:24:31.279 He doesn't want you to tolerate your life. He wants 386 00:24:31.279 --> 00:24:34.880 you to love it passionately. It means embracing your suffering 387 00:24:34.960 --> 00:24:37.960 and kissing it, wishing to see it over and over 388 00:24:38.039 --> 00:24:41.160 for eternity. It's one of the most radical pieces of 389 00:24:41.200 --> 00:24:45.079 wisdom Nietzschue wrote, and it seems almost impossible to achieve 390 00:24:45.119 --> 00:24:49.559 in its perfect form. How can someone genuinely love their tragedies? 391 00:24:50.000 --> 00:24:53.480 How can they wish for their worst experiences to repeat eternally? 392 00:24:54.200 --> 00:24:58.240 But perhaps that's exactly the point. Perhaps amor fati isn't 393 00:24:58.240 --> 00:25:02.359 about achieving perfection, but about the direction you're headed, about 394 00:25:02.359 --> 00:25:05.960 the attitude you cultivate. Each moment you choose to say 395 00:25:06.039 --> 00:25:09.599 yes instead of no, each time you choose to embrace 396 00:25:09.880 --> 00:25:14.200 instead of resist, each time you find gratitude even in difficulty, 397 00:25:14.799 --> 00:25:18.839 You're moving in the direction of amorphati. However, he thinks 398 00:25:18.880 --> 00:25:22.880 it's a perspective worth striving to achieve, because the alternative 399 00:25:22.960 --> 00:25:26.240 is living in constant war with reality. It's spending your 400 00:25:26.400 --> 00:25:30.359 entire life resisting what is, wishing it were different, and 401 00:25:30.440 --> 00:25:34.680