Oakeshott on History Book

One of my favorite parts of older American intellectual culture, back when the middle and working-classes were enamored with the idea of self-improvement, was the genre of popular writing about philosophy that sought to make it accessible to the masses. Will Durant was the quintessential example of this, but in this entertaining summary of Nietzsche's life and thought by H.L. Mencken I discovered another great guide. I've tried to teach myself as much about Nietzsche as I can over the years including by directly reading his work, but it always helps to have a teacher. It helps that he's an amazing writer.

One new thing that I learned from this book is about the conflict between the gods Apollo and Dionysius and their relation to Greek tragedy in Nietzsche's thought. Apollo was the upholder of order and reifier of the status quo, while Dionysius was the destroyer and creator. Greek tragedy essentially depicted the conflict between these two gods, which was the essence of life as they saw it. Civilizations today have Apollonian and Dionysian components and the balance between them changes over time. It would seem to me that the United States is in a deep Apollonian stage today after the Dionysian outbursts that accompanied its rise as an empire, though a Nietzsche scholar would be better equipped to make that judgement.

Another idea that I was familiar with but learned more of from Mencken's analysis was the Nietzschean idea of the origins of morality. As per Nietzsche, morals are merely norms created in one age for the purposes of that age, devised to make life as successful and comfortable as possible within it. The will to live and the will to power - the forces that underpin all life and are more fundamental even than intelligence - design rules that are intended to facilitate their flourishing. But these dictates are then put into the mouth of Gods and acquire a force that is not easily left behind when times and requirements change. As time passes, the morals of old weigh people down like barnacles that need to be broken in order to let the species and its greatest members thrive.

Needless to say Nietzsche was no fan of Christianity or its "slave-morality" dictates to be kind to the weak and show them pity. In his mind this merely increased the suffering in the world by letting the naturally weak and suffering continue to live and produce more suffering progeny. A healthy race, a race of "supermen" would transcend this weakness forever and produce higher and higher forms of man. I would like to read "The Anti-Christ" after reading Mencken's summary of it here.

All in all this popular summary of Nietsche is an enjoyable and useful read. I also enjoyed the short biography of the philosopher as an ordinary man, propped up on pillows at his sister's house discussing things both mundane and lofty into the night.