More Nietzsche

From Lastly, check out Friedrich Nietzsche’s guide to better online living, an interview:

What made you think that you needed to change your life and that Nietzsche’s ideas could help?

Like other people, I spent way too much time interacting with screens without getting that much out of the experience. Screen time somehow was drawing me in, deeper and deeper, almost against my will. When I looked at my life and thought about the idea that the way we spend our hours is the way we spend our lives, I realized I was dissatisfied. I was spending my life with pieces of glass that provide access to endless information and entertainment, and I lost contact with the physical world. When I looked at my grandparents’ lives, they were much more in and of the world, and they seemed very content with that.

***

 Nietzsche rejected the idea that a transcendent god exists whose divine plan provides human beings with a fundamental sense of purpose. To overcome that nihilism, he believed we should embrace life so creatively and intentionally that we could take pleasure in living each moment over and over again for all eternity.

 ***

"Many of us are constantly consuming new information, from news to the newest must-watch streaming series and acclaimed podcasts. Why would Nietzsche caution us against this behavior?

Nietzsche was concerned that our lives are inundated with information. It tends to pile up around us, metaphorically, like a pile of garbage or cocoon that walls us in. In an early essay, Nietzsche notes that too much of his academic work was devoted to delving through old books and piling up mountains of facts when humans should be seeking information that’s conducive to living well."

 

sch 3/30/22