Showing posts tagged nietzsche
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Sometimes people don’t want to hear the truth because they don’t want their illusions destroyed.

Friedrich Nietzsche

It becomes a special difficult when those illusions have become necessary for their survival. Also, it might be instructive to note that while you’re stroking your beard and agreeing with Nietzsche here, you’re probably doing so in a manner which implies that illusions are entirely a product of the other people’s brains.

(Reblogged from armyofdorkness)

Mensch Und Ubermensch

pinkphilosopher:

Becoming an Ubermensch is difficult but rewarding. Difficult because the hindrance towards success comes from within and rewarding because failure cannot come from without.

The first time you realise there’s no god and you’re on your own, it’s kind of terrifying, because you have nowhere to go when things go ass over tits. But then you realise how satisfying it can be when something goes right. It’s a full-time job, and it doesn’t allow for much auto-pilot. 

Enjoy.

(Reblogged from pinkphilosopher)

Community’s Getting Cancelled

NBC are calling it “benched”, but it’s very possible they’re just not going to renew it. For some reason, fans are comparing the fate of Community to that of Whitney, which is a terrible show for terrible people. The reality is that they should be comparing it to The Big Bang Theory, which is in the time slot and therefore is literally chasing down the same audience.

Networks don’t care about your fan mobilization or letters of protest. Everything will be ignored. All they care about is the numbers: the last episode of Community (Studies in Modern Movement) polled 3.5 million viewers and the last episode of The Big Bang Theory (The Ornithophobia Diffusion) polled 15.9 million viewers. Community is under-performing by a factor of 4, and this is representative of their performance ever since season 2. In fact, the first season of Community (which was the third season of The Big Bang Theory) saw a significant bump in The Big Bang Theory’s numbers.

I’ve discussed Community’s shitty numbers before, where I came to the conclusion that, at least that week, they were long on clever, dangerously self-aware and short on laughs. Dan Harmon reacted very badly to my suggestion, but it looks like I was right. There’s nothing wrong with glancing at the camera every so often in a fourth-wall-breaking manoeuvrings for the purposes of humour, but having six people constantly staring into the camera in every episode is draining. And, as Nietzsche would never, ever have said, “Battle not with numbers, lest ye become a number, and if you gaze into the camera, the camera gazes also into you.”

Community is a show about stupid people making clever jokes. The Big Bang Theory is a show about clever people making stupid jokes. Apparently, Americans can tell the difference.

Beyond Existentialism

  • Andrea: [PHILOSOPHY LECTURER #1]'s one injected that human meaning into the middle.
  • solo1: You shouldn't have to inject anything into existentialism - it's the only possible conclusion. Human meaning is all that's left because they specifically remove everything else.
  • Andrea: Yes but the conclusion is the fact that even though there is no general, overarching meaning, we can invent our own
  • Andrea: [PHILOSOPHY LECTURER #2] NEVER got to that part. He discouraged any conclusions on that topic.
  • Andrea: I wanted to know why we couldn't then use the philosophers to talk about how this gave us FREEDOM.
  • solo1: Maybe because that's the end of the studying?
  • solo1: You are free.
  • solo1: The end.
  • Andrea: Oh god.
  • Andrea: But there should be a theoretical discussion showing examples of how philosophers utilised that conclusion.
  • Andrea: Do you get me?
  • solo1: Yes, but they don't really do anything with the conclusion, do they? It's all about getting there. For all of them. And getting there is a grim process. I'm not sure where you can go after "You are free." Further attempts at instruction would seem to be redundant at best and paradoxical at worst.
  • Andrea: Well yes. But there you go into Nietzsche who talks about the positivity of that message.
  • solo1: They all do, but there's nothing you can DO with that information, really. Is there? Other than re-affirm it in a variety of poetic ways.
  • solo1: The real business is in how you get there. After that, by definition, you're on your own.
  • Andrea: I suppose that's true.
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Flirting with madness was one thing; when madness started flirting back, it was time to call the whole thing off.
Rohinton Mistry, A Fine Balance, 1995
(Reblogged from prurient-rapture)