Walking the Tightrope

“We have to learn to think differently – in order that at last, perhaps very late on, we attain even more: to feel differently .” ( Daybreak , from Aphorism 103) Nietzsche’s self-creation, the triumph of Becoming in an amoral universe indifferent to human Being, has some universal characteristics. First of all, it is not universal in the sense of being exactly the same for every person. Each individual must find their own way, as long as that way does not rely upon certain misguided traditions. “ Insofar as the individual is seeking happiness, one ought not to tender him any prescriptions as to the path to happiness: for individual happiness springs from one’s own unknown laws, and prescriptions from without can only obstruct and hinder it.” (from Aphorism 108) Secondly, as we have seen, self-creation takes place within a complexity of pre-conscious, instinctual drives that motivate human behavior. Thirdly, self-creation is inherently an intimate path of reflective living that shuns...