Also sprach Zarathustra, my butt!
What is it about Nietzsche that so fascinates undergraduates?
My first-born zoomed in the house this weekend to bum some money off me and my wife.
And also to show off his new fashion accessories: including a piercing just below his lower lip and a spiked bracelet that looked like a cartoon bulldog's collar. (So our dream of the boy one day becoming the CEO of a Fortune 500 company is still alive!)
We managed to have a brief conversation about some philosophy class he was taking, and Nietzsch came up: the old "God-is-dead-everything-is-permitted-the-will-to-power-ubermensch'' philosopher. Josh is quite taken with this particular old dead white male.
And I can't figure it out. You have more freedom as an undergraduate than at anytime in your life. And the whole "will to power'' sounds all fine and dandy until you actually get some and then, as any parent can tell you, you realize that power is a cross to bear, a terrible burden.
As Spiderman once said, "With great power comes great responsibility.''
And my kid has about nada in the responsibility department.
Love also gets in the way of the exercise of unbridled power, you know?
"I'll stack Ghandi and the Dr. King against old Nietzsche any day of the week, son,'' I told him.
I suspect that his infatuation with Nietzsche will end at about the same time he takes that godawful stud out of his lower face.
My first-born zoomed in the house this weekend to bum some money off me and my wife.
And also to show off his new fashion accessories: including a piercing just below his lower lip and a spiked bracelet that looked like a cartoon bulldog's collar. (So our dream of the boy one day becoming the CEO of a Fortune 500 company is still alive!)
We managed to have a brief conversation about some philosophy class he was taking, and Nietzsch came up: the old "God-is-dead-everything-is-permitted-the-will-to-power-ubermensch'' philosopher. Josh is quite taken with this particular old dead white male.
And I can't figure it out. You have more freedom as an undergraduate than at anytime in your life. And the whole "will to power'' sounds all fine and dandy until you actually get some and then, as any parent can tell you, you realize that power is a cross to bear, a terrible burden.
As Spiderman once said, "With great power comes great responsibility.''
And my kid has about nada in the responsibility department.
Love also gets in the way of the exercise of unbridled power, you know?
"I'll stack Ghandi and the Dr. King against old Nietzsche any day of the week, son,'' I told him.
I suspect that his infatuation with Nietzsche will end at about the same time he takes that godawful stud out of his lower face.
posted by Michael Riley at 11:19 AM
2 Comments:
What would happen if you stop giving him money? (which obviously he uses to fund his piercings). See if he waxes philosophically then!
Worry -- but don't worry. He will almost certainly outgrow it. You can give him some food for thought by discussing the details of Nietzsche's life; especially his mental breakdown.
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