The will to power and the sacred
19
Oct
It is a fact that Nietzsche’s concepts are strong: in our instincts the ideas of the will for power
are always present, while nothing changes we remain in the eternal return (Ewige Wiederkehr) and we imagine a superman (übermensch), however this is a form of emptying, nihilism.
There are other instincts that bind us to the sacred, the idea of serving and respect for the other (which are the limits to our will), and without them any scope of our social relation can fall into what I will call “social nihilism”, or that is, the emptying of social thought.
Limited to the will to power, it is only our instincts that speak, and the attitudes even in politics become emotional, in love in the bad sense, it is possible to fall in love with the Good.
I place Capital well because it should not be confused with the Manichaean good, by imagining that we are fighting against an often symbolic “evil” (read Paul Ricoeur’s The Symbolic of Evil) we return in “eternal return” to our instincts of power and intolerance.
The point that Nietzsche was right about is that such instincts exist, they lead to the false concept of authority as an iron hand, and these lead to totalitarianisms, even in everyday life, that empty the sense of education, of service, what I call of “social nihilism”.
Linked to the sacred this concept is purified, can become generosity, benevolence and even a theological virtue that is “charity”, and without this “social nihilism” is a way. This is what makes even people with good intention fall into the temptation of the blue fly, power for power, even the disciples who walked beside Jesus had this “temptation”, ask Jesus in your kingdom: “let us sit a right and another to your left “(Mc, 10,37).
Jesus will say that they do not know what they are asking, we would say today they do not know what they choose, the idea of a strong power that solves deep social issues, that depend on a new worldview, to leave the eternal return, depends on the mobilization of the popular will and not of a stronger central power.
Is a temptation also for those who defend the social. It was the idea of a strong state, led by leaders with “charisma”, who led the world to a second world war, the networked society, and the network are people, needs to get out of their “social nihilism”.
It know what it takes to go through sacrifices to change, Jesus asked the apostles who wanted to sit beside him: “Can ye drink the cup that I drink?” Mk 10,38.
The great change we need requires a global citizenship, not a return to Adam Smith’s “Wealth of Nations” time, even though the feeling of nation and people is good
