About Nietzsche’s Maxim
In publications like this one, German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (1840–1900) comes up a lot. Just about everybody knows his maxim, “What doesn’t kill me makes me stronger.” Or at least some version of it, the wording varies from speaker to speaker. Sometimes the reference is “us” rather than “me”: the 1982 movie “Conan the Barbarian” opens with the title card, “That which does not kill us makes us stronger—Friedrich Nietzsche.” Watergate conspirator G. Gordon Liddy in the 1970s got a lot of attention using this “us” version. A Kelly Clarkson song makes it “you”: “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, stronger.” Here’s my take on this dictum, another word for it.
In Nietzsche’s essay published in 1889, Twilight of the Idols, he wrote: “Out of life’s school of war: what does not kill me makes me stronger.” Here, he likens life to being in a war, one that, if survived, has this personally strengthening outcome. I’m not sure if he was just talking about himself in this instance or setting out a fact of life that applies to everybody or just some people. He wrote a lot about a superior brand of human being, the übermensch in German, or overman or superman, so he may have been applying this axiom, yet another term for it, only to people of this higher sort and included himself—or a fictionalized version of himself, in real life Nietzsche wasn’t exactly a dynamo—among their number.
Although it has received little attention, with a different twist, Nietzsche got at this basic notion in an earlier collection of thought fragments entitled Maxims of a Hyperborean: “What does not destroy us—we destroy and it makes us stronger.” Notice in this case we become stronger not by enduring adversity or attack but rather by destroying what would destroy us.
With reference to the maxim as it stands in our time, it seems to me that whether the referent is “me,” “us,” or “you,” they all mean “a person”: that which doesn’t kill a person makes him or her stronger. And that “kill” is not to be taken literally. “Kill” means “devastates,” “personally destroys,” “shatters,” debilitates,” “crushes”—where someone is brought down in a major, lasting way. And notice it isn’t about getting anything accomplished in this circumstance other than you becoming more capable.
Undoubtedly the popularity of this Nietzschean notion stems from the fact that despite its grim imagery—confronting something that could, figuratively anyway, kill you—it’s a positive, hopeful, feel-good idea. If things are really rough, keep the faith, because getting through this ordeal is going to beef you up. In fact, if you are looking to get stronger—tougher, more resilient, less vulnerable, more battle ready—you might even be advised to seek out trouble, or at least not duck it when it shows itself, because it’ll accomplish this good thing if you hang in there.
Amid all this optimism, however, we need to keep in mind that everything is what it is and isn’t anything else. In this case, a maxim is a maxim and real life is real life. Reality is far more complex and one-of-a-kind than any maxim can capture. My experience with reality—actual existence, my own and from what I can discern from observing the lives of other people, both directly and indirectly through reading and film and such—leads me to conclude that what doesn’t kill us indeed does makes us stronger . . . sometimes. And that the times it makes us stronger, it does so in every imaginable way and to every imaginable extent. And that sometimes what doesn’t kill us doesn’t strengthen us at all; rather, it diminishes us, hurts us, injures us, and again, in different ways and degrees. And that sometimes what doesn’t kill us weakens us in some ways and strengthens us in others, and again in every possible combination, although I’ve noticed (if I’m not kidding myself) that the balance usually tips in favor of strengthens.
This last possibility—some combination of weakening and strengthening—seems to me the most likely outcome of survived adversity, and that leads me to a modification of this most famous Nietzsche maxim:
That which doesn’t kill you will leave its scars, but on balance you’ll be stronger than before. But then again, it might not happen that way in your case, so keep your eyes open and use your wits to do whatever is best for you in this particular instance.
Thus, when confronted with something that could kill you, you might be advised to fight like a wildcat, or placate, or work out a deal, or finesse and con, or lay low, or cut and run, or just bear up under whatever it is; it’s a judgment call.
Psychology calls this self-efficacy conviction (resilience), he only way out of learned helplessness. The perceived powerlessness of the individual, as a mere ant in the system, is a typical consequence of the passivity that comes with the computer age. No coping strategies were developed, but rather the avoidance behavior of not exposing oneself to any risk or danger. The disastrous result is total stagnation, a kind of zombie existence as the undead, buried alive. You don’t live, you are lived. Only the few who dare win. Everyone else becomes their vicarious agent.
Passivity is a consequence of prosperity, you have to be able to afford it. Then you are no longer part of life, but stand by as a spectator, an onlooker, as – pardon – “observer”. You are looking over a virtual fence into the life that takes place “there” but not (or no longer) here. This privilege can only be afforded by a saturated consumer society like ours, where pigeons fly into the mouths of those who no longer have to fight a daily battle for survival (or so they believe). Of course, this is all at the expense of our dwindling number of descendants, because their struggle for self-assertion and their legitimate place in the world will have to be fought all the more dramatically on behalf of the failing boomers.
The only legacy of our forefathers great culture: what remains is “thinking” as a substitute for action. Because acting is a sheer unbearable burden. Perhaps it is more advisable to submit to the inevitable fate without a fight? Better to read another of the very latest self-help books first, as they are sure to contain the ultimate world formula that explains everything and opens all doors “with a click”, as if by magic. The digital illusion, or rather delusion.
Nietzsche is best read neat, but carefully and at length. He revised his views sometimes. A master of memorable aphorism, he was not alone. Beware his liberal appropriation by Kaufmann, but also his NS appropriation by Oehler. Actually very perceptive on Germans and Jews. A mass of secondary commentary choking comprehension today. Best taken in conjunction with Spengler. Can we breed Overmen in time?
Even a bull elephant once must have had Nietzsche’s wisdom in mind, but without considering the serious consequences, because despite its oversized dimensions, this foresight is not possible for its brain. https://i.ibb.co/LLDYpzg/jumbo.jpg
One could also conclude that Mother Nature decided for him. She chose for the greater good his voluntary heroic death as a group evolutionary survival strategy on behalf of his genetic relatives.
It has even been shown that leaderless bull elephants can become murderous beasts. The unmistakable consequence of human intervention in nature, who apparently believed they could transfer their sick Judeo-Marxist idea of “liberality” and “equality” to animals and abolish their healthy hierarchy.
https://www.bbcearth.com/news/teenage-elephants-need-a-father-figure
For many people, what “feels good” to them is “true”. It can be about the most “offbeat preferences”. But we cannot deal with our misery with this kind of lazy mentality, we have to develop a higher consciousness than that of our destroyers. How can this be achieved? By developing a higher instance than that of our so far programmed unconsciousness.
We must therefore begin to listen to our INNER SELF-TALK, to enter into a dispute with ourselves. This will give us increasingly “louder” thoughts, so we can get to the bottom of them and put them out of action with counter-questioning: “Is that really true”? “Of course not!”. Then we can decide whether we really want to pursue these stupid thoughts.
So we only become free in spirit when we recognize ourselves as the highest judge and the highest authority of judgment. But doesn’t this ultimately mean become impious? Not in the slightest! By doing so, you have given destiny access, it is this itself that speaks through you! You have emerged from the realm of heteronomy into the realm of self-determination!
How can I know that? The PRIMAL SOURCE of all being protects you if you believe in yourself! You gain an infinite, unshakeable trust in life and its laws, processes and circumstances. You recognize and acknowledge your extremely minimal part in a stream of cosmic events, you allow yourself to be guided by destiny instead of trying to “influence” it yourself!
There is another piece of wisdom I would like to impart to you: a constantly lurking danger is not a reason for paralysis, but for awareness. Imagine living on a volcano that could erupt at any time. This is not a cause for concern, but a fantastic closeness to the creative and destructive forces, which are one and the same. Not war, as Heraclitus claims, but this is the father of all things. We have to welcome and appreciate the gift of the moment.
This is true German-American friendship. Henrike, the German country beauty, allows American Craig to look through her magical eye to unleash nature in all its splendor, beauty and perfection. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJFHiitAUxI
To do so, the veils of multi-layered abstractions must be lifted through a transformative process of sensitive realization of nature in order to move from the self-deception of normative-judgmental ego-hood to the analytic-synthetic acceptance of we-hood.
Thanks to Goethean wisdom, she taught him not to regard her as a pure object of abstraction, but to get to know her from the inside, as it were, in a spieric exchange of energetic vibrations. For this Craig was forced to learn German.
Their hearts have been healed since Craig married her and got her a green card to live in Illinois. Of course, any animal products are absolutely taboo in Henrike’s kitchen, as this shows a lack of knowledge and understanding of nature!
Sometimes, however, Craig wakes up scared in a cold sweat and thinks he recognizes Mephisto in the form of a demonic giggling witch called Hildegard riding naked on a broomstick into the cold Walpurgis Night.
Henrike then comforts him: “It was just another bad dream, my beloved husband, and it’s because of my good food – it’s too pure for your system!” She then forces him to drink a kale smoothie spiked with “karmic essence”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oTDNyXyjBE