In many ways, Friedrich Nietzsche’s vision of a society that has supplanted theology with culture has come true, though almost certainly not in the way the late philosopher had intended. As far as my generation is concerned, whether or not we have the moral courage to admit it, the “arts” do a hell of a lot more to rear our mentality than any one sect does. Interestingly enough, two of Nietzsche's most prominent teachings are sort of at odds in this way. Nietzsche was a proponent of a life dedicated to discovering one’s true self, a process that has been made all but impossible thanks to our culture's preoccupation with innocuous drivel. While it might be true “Have you seen Stranger Things Yet?” has become the new “Repent, Sinner!” I’m not sure that we’re any more enlightened because of it.
Every couple of years, we have taken a few steps further away from the embrace of religion and into the loving, unassuming arms of schlock and nostalgia. It’s a better home, I suppose, but we still have plenty of existential luggage. Where the former taught us to treat our inner desires with contempt and frame our incompetence as virtues, the latter teaches us not to ruminate over them or really anything at all. Who has time to consider the ramifications of the North Korea crisis when we still don’t know who Rey’s parents are?
This isn’t some iconoclastic indictment of nerd culture or TV. I am by no means immune to the narcotic that is mind numbing entertainment, I just think there is a healthy middle ground between holy doctrine and pre-faded Green Lantern t-shirts.
The great German thinker spurned religion in favor of culture, sure, but he also bore a deep abhorrence for those that wish to cling to comfort at the expense of the betterment of self. I believe that all the cautions Nietzsche applied to the consumption of alcohol apply to our obsession with arts and entertainment, irreverent of the fact that the kind of “art” that dominates the industry today is hardly the sort of practical therapeutic literature he had in mind over a century ago.
If God is indeed “dead,” let us not hasten to employ another. The vaccum must be filled with art of all kinds, but scrutiny and self reflection must accompany them.
Happy Birthday Friedrich Nietzsche.
