I’ve been reading my Portable Nietzsche lately and that is never an easy thing because even a Nietzsche fan like me finds him alternately blazingly brilliant and frustratingly petty and shortsighted.
One area in which he pisses me off is in his misanthropy. And that’s brought a lot of my thoughts about misanthropy to the surface, and it is those thoughts I will express today.
Because it has occurred to me that misanthropy is the worst form of bigotry possible.
Why? Because at least all the other forms of bigotry only deny the individuality and humanity of some subset of the human race, and therefore feels capable of making a value judgment on all members of that subset.
Misanthropy does that to all of humanity. Every single human being in existence at any point of history, past or future or present, from the dawn of time to the heat death of the universe, with no chance of redemption.
It is the ultimate example of “they’re all the same”.
In this, we recognize that, like all forms of bigotry, misanthropy is not only morally reprehensible but intellectually dishonest. It claims knowledge that patently cannot exist because it ignores the enormous variability and individuality of its subject.
You can’t possibly know enough about 7 human beings – let alone the seven and a half billion currently alive on Planet Earth – to make any kind of value judgment on them, good or bad.
This is easily demonstrated by counterexample.
“Human beings are horrible!”
“Really? Even Mister Rogers?”
“Humanity is wonderful!”
“Really? Even Hitler?”
Note : it is the overly broad nature of these statements that make them so easily disproven. But then again, bigotry has always been intolerant of nuance.
What the misanthrope is really saying is something like “My social issues are so severe that I will accept or generate ridiculously unjustifiable value judgments on the entire human race in order to slap a halo on my fear and loathing of them. “
Right. You’re not the one with the problem. The entire species has the problem!
And I am saying these things as someone with serious social/psychological issues which cause him not merely to fear and hate most of humanity but to actively withdraw from most of society to the point of being able to lead an adult lifestyle.
When it comes to human gregariousness,I am an extreme outlier.
The difference is that I don’t pretend that it’s morally justified. I know that the problem is me, not them. An early childhood trauma coupled with a socially isolated childhood caused me to fail to develop properly and that left me with serious issues when it came to dealing with others.
So how does one become a misanthrope? Why is it not merely enough to avoid one’s fellow humans? Why is this absurd value judgment even needed?
Because even the crankiest of curmudgeons is human enough to feel drawn to their fellow human beings, and when people feel drawn towards something they hate and fear, they need something counteract that draw.
Hence misanthropy. The misanthrope feels the draw to their fellow humans, mistakes it to be humanity being drawn to them,and “fights them off” by declaring these imaginary hordes to be universally awful.
Incidentally, Nietzsche himself presents an excellent model of why his misanthropy is wrongheaded when he says it is impossible to judge life because you are either in itm and hence biased, or not in it, and hence unavailable for comment.
The same is true for the human race, Freddy baby.
More after the break.
Getting it done
Finally got around to calling my doctor and getting my non-psychiatric medications refilled. So yay for me on that front.
First, I called my pharmacy to see if I had prescriptions on file. Nope. Then my pharmacist says “You haven’t had these prescriptions filled since last September”!
Um, wat? That makes absolutely no sense.
Turns out, I just hadn’t gotten them filled there since last September,. That’s when I remembered that the last few times I went to see Doctor Chao, I had gotten my prescriptions filled at the pharmacy attached to his office.
So that was slightly embarrassing. Like I got caught cheating on my pharmacist.
So then I called my GP’s office. Turns out he’s not doing in-person appointments yet.
Which is no big deal this time because all I wanted was a pill refill. That is an easy thing to do over the phone.
But it still rankles me. Why can’t he just wear PPE like all the other doctors?
Anyhow, job done, anyhow. I still have wounds all over my legs and I have been getting a lot of weird and sometimes painful feelings in them lately, but at least I got pills.
Or at least, I will once I get Julian to pick them up for me tomorrow. Or maybe I will go get them myself so I can get some blood work done at the Lifelabs next door too.
Depends on how I am feeling. Lately I have not been feeling so hot, probably because it’s so hot.
Still, I managed to slow myself down enough to take a long look out my bathroom window and take in the fresh air and sunshine while watching someone mow the lawn.
I really want to do things like that more often. I think that one of the things that contributes to my general malaise is that I am so cut off from nature in my filthy little ferret hole here.
Even commuters get more exposure to nature than I do. At least they have to get to and from their cars.
And the thing is. my little nature time today made me quite happy. It reminded me of happy summer days of my youth, and I got some clean air for once.
And yet, I had to force myself to do it. My default position is to cling to my life exactly as it is right now, no matter how much another part of me craves change.
Deep down, I still have that feeling like I am just barely holding my guts in, and I have to remain absolutely still or I will die.
It isn’t true, obviously.
But I still feel it.
I will talk to you nice people again tomorrow.