1.11. Nietzsche -- The Abyss, The Tightrope, and The Superman Philosophy (Take 3)

Overlooking an abyss of death, man is scrambling on a tightrope of life that bridges two cliffs -- 'actuality' and 'potential' -- 'being' and 'becoming' -- but in between is all the anxiety about falling, the anxiety of death...anxiety of the unknown...anxiety of insecurity...don't look down! Be strong and keep scrambling forward until you get to where you want to be -- with a lot of hard work...rest momentarily...and then it's back to the tightrope again...man was meant to keep moving...to keep creating himself anew...between two cliffs again...to stay glued on one cliff for too long is to 'existentially die'...a certain amount of 'groundedness' and 'security' is a good thing...one does not want to live an existence that is constantly full of stress and anxiety...but one needs to optimally balance 'groundedness' with the 'tightrope'...stay on the same ground for too long and you stagnate...to relax and refresh is one thing...to stagnate is another...come on ye of failing courage...gather your strength and confidence...clarify your vision...and make it happen...your dream is on the other side of the cliff...with the tightrope your only bridge across... gather all your strength, courage, and resources because you need to bridge the gap, the abyss -- between actuality and potentiality -- between being and becoming...your creativity and the full repertoire of your resources is on the tightrope -- not on the firm ground...the firm ground is the smiling faces of your family, your friends, your community, to celebrate with you when you return...and/or when you make it to the other side...but the tightrope -- the tightrope is for you alone...or for you and your important 'other' as you both respect and grapple with the differences between you, as you both work to use the dialectic to bridge the gap or gaps between you. /strong>


I don't want to take credit for that last passage
because it is an embellishment of a famous Nietzschean
metaphor -- the tightrope and the abyss -- combined with a little of my own modified, and more moderate
'post-Hegelian, optimal balance' philosophy. I will
take credit for the embellishment of the metaphor and the integration
of Nietzsche and Hegel in a way that not even Nietzsche would have liked -- but not for the metaphor itself
because the metaphor of the tightrope and the abyss belongs to Nietzsche, probably the most intensely passionate
philosopher in Western history. In fact, I am not even
going to reference the metaphor because if you are an
experienced philosophy reader you will know where to
find the metaphor and if you are an introductory
philosophy student, then I say, 'Go find the metaphor
and keep reading Nietzsche until you find it.
Everything that you read by Nietzsche before you find
the metaphor is gravy on the meat and potatoes of
Nietzschean philosophy...the philosophy of the
Superman.

Now as for Hegel, unless you have a bottle
of aspirin, a very strong intellect, and a lot of
philosophical perseverence and determination, I think
you are better reading my own interpretations, modifications, and expansions
of Hegel, rather than Hegel himself. Or start with one of many possible 'Introductions to Hegel' which is where I invested much of my energy while 'The Phenomenology' still sits in my library daring me to challenge it.

If you are very intellectually brave -- and I cannot claim that I am -- then this is where you should go -- to Hegel himself through his greatest work, 'The Phenomenology of Mind (and/or Spirit)' -- depending on your translation of the title. If you end up in a cloud of words you don't understand, don't say I didn't warn you...Indeed, I have enough people complaining about the lack of clarity in my own writing, and, trust me, mine is a lot simpler than Hegel's. Hegel goes to abstract places -- in both words and thought -- where I turn back looking for more solid ground -- and passion. Here is where I inevitably turn to Nietzsche. Philosophy without the passion and intensity for life that Nietzsche showed and still shows us, is like life without love, and love without lust and sex. Philosophy is not all about words and reason and logic. This is where even the Enlightenment -- one of the greatest periods of Western philosophy -- failed us. It took Rousseau to first show us the limitations of 'Enlightenment thinking' -- for all its great push towards equality, democracy and freedom for everyone. It took Rousseau to first tell us that life -- and philosophy -- is not all about what is in the 'head' but also about what is in the 'heart' which sometimes, indeed often, may defy reason and logic. This opened up the whole 'Romantic' period of Western philosophy of which Nietzsche was probably its greatest culminating force and statesperson.

Hegel (1770-1831) came along before Nietzsche (1844-1900) and the former was caught half way in between Western Enlightenment and Romantic Philosophy. Hegel very much supported The French Revolution -- until it became the Reign of Terror -- but somewhat more confusingly, Hegel also supported Napoleon, the latter of whom can hardly be deemed to be an advocate of, nor a role model for, 'democratic, egalitarian, Enlightenment' thinking. There are some questions here that need to be asked about the extent to which classic Hegelian dialectical philosophy can be associated to: 1. egalitarian, democratic, Enlightenment philosophy; 2. Romantic philosophy; 3. the rise of German Imperialist philosophy; 4. the rise of Marxist philosophy; and 5. the various 'modifications' (perversions?) of Marxist philosophy in the form of Lenin and Stalin Russian 'Marxist-Fascist' philosophy and politics. (Obviously, one can see here that Hegel -- both good and bad, directly and indirectly -- had a hugely dramtic influence on 19th and 20 century philosophy and politics in Europe and Asia.)

My DGB Post-Hegelian (and Post-Nietzschean) Optimal Balance Philsophy purports to integrate the 'the best of Hegel and the best of Nietzsche' into one cumultive system of philosophy, psychology, politics -- along with every other form of human activity, culture, and evolution as well, at least to the extent that I have the time and energy to write in all the different fields I want to write in (science, medicine, law, etc.)

Now, to be sure, I am not alone in having successfully and/or unsuccessfully attempted to do this. Freud's Psychoanalysis mixes Hegel and Nietszche, as does Jungian Psychology, as does Perls' Gestalt Therapy. But I have this advantage over every philosopher and every psychologist who has gone before me -- I am writing from their shoulders. (I read that analogy from some philosopher -- forgive me if I do not know who said it, or where I found it, but I will give you the reference as soon as I find it again, which I think will be soon.)


Back to Nietsche. Unlike Nietzsche -- I like the dialectic -- indeed embrace the egalitarian, democratic dialectic -- which is why 'The Birth of Tragedy (BT)' is my favorite Nietzschean work. BT can be viewed as the precursor to Freudian Psychoanalyis as the young Nietzsche under Hegelian influence -- before he turned anti-Hegelian -- laid out the groundwork for what was to be the classic Freudian struggle in man. With Nietzsche, the struggle was between Apollonian and Dionysian man; with Freud the struggle would be reconceptualized as the struggle between civilized (moral) and non-civilized (instinctual) man.

In this philosophical project here -- Hegel's Hotel -- I aim to 'bridge the philosophical gap' not only between Hegel and Nietzsche -- but between every two or more sets of philosophers and or psychologists who I set my creative energies on. I have some 2700 years of philosophy, psychology, politics, law, science, medicine, culture, and evolution to work with. My creativity lies in the gaps -- that is why I used to call what I do here 'Gap Philosophy and Gap Psychology' but now I call it 'DGB Philosophy-Psychology' -- as in 'Dialectical-Gap-Bridging Philosophy-Psychology'. It is my 'Dialectical-Gap-Bridging creative abilities' that comprises my climbing attempts over the many different 'tightropes which I straddle'.


But Hegel's Hotel and DGB Philosophy-Psychology is not all about me. The idea of the dialectic implies two or more people or sets of opposing ideas acting on the same problem or challenge. I am just here to awaken or re-awaken people to some or many of the creative, integrative possibilities of the dialectic and the multi-dialectic in action. If you have followed me to this point and I still have your interest and attention, then let us by all means -- dialectically between the two of us, you and I, as reader and writer -- and switch; -- and again, you and I, as philosopher and student -- and switch -- keep this dialectical ball rolling. Philosophy -- like everything else in life -- is about education not only in the form of one perspective dominating over all other perspectives (because this only happens for a certain period of time before other persepctives come to the forefront) but rather, in the form of many different and often opposing perspectives, each generally with its own separate truth-value, each inciting and exciting passion and motivation from those who support its truth value -- and the important need and ability, if we all want to live peacefully on this earth together in close proximity to each other, to balance opposing truths and values towards some sort of central, workable, optimally balanced philosophy of life.

Allow me some room for creative egotism -- narcissism if you will -- when I call my own particular brand of this 'dialectical-integrative' philosophy -- 'Gap-DGBN Post-Hegelian, Post-Nietzschean, Humanistic-Existential Philosophy'. Or -- more simply labelled -- just 'Gap Philosophy'.

It could also be called 'post-Gestalt Philosophy' -- as I spent much of the 1980s learning Gestalt Therapy (which indirectly brought me to Hegel, Nietzsche and philosophy in general) -- but it has been 15 years since I was involved with the Gestalt Institute and much of what I have learned is knowledge that I learned either before I got to the Gestalt Institute (my Honours Thesis in psychology in 1979 was on the connection between Cognitve Therapy and General Semantics) and/or after I left the Gestalt Institute around 1991 (and started to focus on the study of philosophy). So even though Gestalt Therapy remains near and dear to my heart, I will call what I am doing here 'DGB Philosophy-Psychology-Politics...' or just 'DGB Philosophy' and everything else that has influenced the direction, process, content, and/or structure of my thinking needs to include the word 'post'- in order to accommodate my many creative variations, integrations, and modifications with other 'schools of thought' that have influenced it too.

I am loyal to many schools of thought -- and at the same time -- to none. This is the paradox of my existence -- and my still evolving philosophy of life -- which are dialectically affected by each other.


dgb, first writing, Nov 6th-9th, 2006; second modified version, Nov. 22nd-24th, 2006.
dgbn, david gordon bain,
dgbn, dialectical gap-bridging negotiations
dgbn, democracy goes beyond narcissism.