Friedrich Nietzsche part 1

Friedrich Nietzsche philosophised that morality was a doctrine invented by the inferior to restrain the superior, this point can be broken into two sections, which must be individually dealt with. The first is that morality, is in fact a concept, which I believe it is, as everyone has a different interpretation of what I considered “moral”. I also find it difficult to believe that people would behave in an upstanding and ethical way if the thought to do so has not imposed on them by a higher power, through both positive and negative reinforcements, which could be anything from a parent putting a disobedient child on the naughty step, to an almighty entity promising eternity in paradise as a reward for following a set of guidelines. I believe that if we were still under the laws of natural selection many of us, if not all, would gladly murder a rival in order to survive, fortunately evolution has dictated that humans work better as a community, where it became necessity to ensure each others safety, even if it was for our own self-interest.

The second point of this we must consider is that there is, as Friedrich put it “Übermensch” or Superhuman, many historians believe that this lead to Hitler's “Master race.” However Nietzsche himself was critical of both anti-Semitism and German nationalism. He stated that beyond humanity was ascertainable and should be the goal of every individual and collective. I agree that there are some who are superior to others, for example Carl Segan compared to the cast of Jersey Shore. However if it were to come to a point where everyone had the mental power of the great minds of our era, that would be considered normal or average, and if we continue along this path of intellectual evolution it would come to a point where we became creatures of pure consciousness at a sentient level and thus achieved a state of Übermensch.

If we put these ideas together we conclude that in order to achieve this god-like grandeur we must cast off the shackles of morality, to through away our concepts of good and evil, to do not what is right, but what is logical.

“Fear is the mother of morality.” - Friedrich Nietzsche  

A thought about books.

While in conversation with a colleague about the tragedy that is the death of the written word, with things like e-readers and Amazon kindles it won't be too much of a surprise that within a few years book retail will be a dead business. This is for two main reasons, one is that "E-books" are often much cheaper especially with copyright expiration on dead authors, meaning many classic novels are now free. The second reason is that books take up quite a bit of space in the tangible world, where as on a database they become layers of compressed information, meaning that whole libraries can be condensed into just a few gigabytes. This gives us the choice between dedicating lots of shelf space to our favourite reads and simply keeping them stored as information on a tablet which more than makes it's money back when compared to high-street prices of books. However one might argue that this is not the 'death of the written word' to which I agree, more of a reincarnation into the digital era, where if anything they'll be further immortalised. Although with things like Audible, and Librivox where one can simply download a book and have it read to them. Which is cheating frankly, it takes all the effort out of reading the book and the soul is stripped from the novel, as well as making literacy redundant. But if the technology is available, why should I take the effort of lifting up a big, heavy copy of Harry Potter and risk straining my eyes on reading the words on the page when I can fall asleep to the soothing voice of Steven Fry reading "the goblet of fire". My solution, get people with annoying voices to read the books, then people won't find it so easy to put up with. 


"books never die. No man and no force can abolish memory." Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Intro:

First off, introductions, I'm Dane, or RexDane as you know me. The "Rex" part of my name comes from the Latin for King, but is mainly a memorial to my Father, Rex Harrison, who died when I was 9 years old. This is the reason for not only my Atheism, but the beginning of my quest for knowledge. My blog is a haven for those seeking intellectual fulfilment, I will cover a wide range of topics from philosophy, science, history, English language and even theology, as even though I am an Atheist I am fascinated by people's interpretation of scripture. (Not in a condescending way, simply as an outsider looking in.) My hope is that everyone who reads my posts learns something they didn't know before or finds a new perspective on something that they had previously dismissed.

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog. 

"We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think. When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves." - Buddha.