Essay On Nietzsche

Essay On Nietzsche: The Missing Piece

Nietzsche understood what it meant to be alive. He had studied the Greeks and seen how passionately they lived, and was especially moved by their love for art and music. He was also this way, moved by music and greatly influenced by Wagner. He believed that humans needed to fulfill their potentials and live passionate, expressive lives, being aware of their power and potential. The highest form of man he could see; he defines as the Superman or Uberminch. It is one who is deeply self aware and realizes his power. He is not ignorant of himself but understands how powerful he is. Nietzsche was upset and angry because he saw Europeans living life out of an empty shell they called morality. He knew their version of morality wasn't real, it was empty and this is why he was angry. He saw the superman as not being afraid of his power. This is why Nietzsche had such a hard time with Jesus; because Jesus was a superman in the respect that He was all powerful. But Jesus became totally helpless and weak, which was intolerable to Nietzsche because it went against his whole understanding of humanity and what it meant to be alive and fully human. He didn't understand the paradox that Jesus embodied in his very weakness.
To elaborate upon the idea of the Superman one must look at his characteristics. He has what Nietzsche calls the Will to Power. What does this look like? My definition of will to power is Pride. Well, that is half of it. I think Nietzsche was aware of the two parts of the will because he refers to one as the slave and the other as the master. I don't think he understood that they both serve an imperative purpose and need each other as a balance. What is one without the other? Surely pure power without weakness to balance it would destroy itself. And weakness is the same. Part of the human will is the Will to Power. This is the pride of man. What is pride? Isn't it self-realized power, or self -actualization? So this is what the superman has, what sets him apart is that he has this power and isn't afraid to use it. The important and crucial point that Nietzsche missed; is that Jesus while having the “will to power”, was here to do something completely different. He was fully aware that He had his power, in this respect He was a Superman. The point Nietzsche missed is that He also had another will; a Will to Weakness so to speak. He was self-aware of His power to fall or to be destroyed by His power. This is why Jesus throughout the Bible never stopped being in complete submission to His Father, because His power had the potential to destroy Him. Jesus was self aware of His power and also aware of what that power could do to Him. He had a relationship with the Trinity which is what human beings don't have. Human beings can have a Will to Power but it means nothing if a human only has self-actualized power that isn't in relation to anyone else or have checks and balances. This is why Jesus was the ultimate paradox of the powerful man because He gave up His power for weakness. This is also why He had perfect power, because He had the trinity and was in submission to them. So His power was checked by others. Through Jesus people who have power can also be perfected; not by his strength but by His weakness.
To go into further detail let's look at the relationship between God and Satan, and what made Satan “fall”. Satan was extremely close to God; He was in charge of all the music in Heaven. Ezekiel 28:13 leads us to believe this might be possible. Satan might has also been a musician himself. He had the power to create which on a hierarchy of power is the highest and closest to the essence of God. Satan was the most powerful angel. Satan fell because of his pride; which I have explained to mean self-realized power or self-awareness. He fell because of this and because he wouldn't accept his need for accountability to someone else, namely God. He wouldn't accept weakness. This is why there is something really powerful about musicians, they have whatever Satan had, the power to create. What is it about music as opposed to other arts that makes it the highest art of all? The closest one to God? What is it about the nature of sound? Of breath? Music speaks in volumes of life, creation, development, and form. There is something about music, the nature of music that is deeply personal perhaps because it comes from the person's breath and something about breath has to do with life; God; creation. “God spoke the world into existence”. People need to realize their need for help, which is the need for outside assistance, reliance on others. This is the nature of all humanity, and the nature of God as well. People become literally “helpless” or beyond help when they no longer have the accountability from others. Questions I have. Was Socrates resigned to his humanity? Or merely aware of it? Did he have hope for humanity? Did Nietzsche respect Socrates? Or agree with him at all? If so, on what points?