Above: Ivan IV holding his dying son in his arms.
Power constitutes right. Nature makes it plain that the strong should rule the weak. But Plato and Christianity imposed a Plebian morality (a morality of the weak) upon society so as to restrain the strong. Their notion of equality is false: it is a slave mentality. It makes all men equal, equally slaves. It shackles potential great men from attaining their potential. The truth is that men are not equal. Some men are born to rule, others are born to serve. Only by breaking free from the false morality of Christ and Plato may true freedom emerge.
This freedom will be based on nothing more than power. Justice is the advantage of the strong. Whoever has power determines what is just: might makes right. The attainment of power is the end of man. Thus is the philosophy of Nietzsche.
Nietzsche said Christianity may attempt to explain how men ought to act, but he knows how men really act. We would all be unjust if we could get away with it. He believes that a life of unpunished injustice is the goal of all. And a life of unpunished injustice is only attainable to one with power, therefore power is the end of man. Imagine a man with a ring that gave him all power. How would a man use it? To do good? Of course not, he would use it to his advantage; he would use this power to satisfy all his desires. Every man wishes he had the power that would make him unaccountable so that he could live exactly as he wished. Power then is the central goal and end of every man.
Nietzsche is wrong in claiming that power is the end (telos) of man. First, the conscience of every man prevents him from enjoying the use of power outside of moral controls. In Crime and Punishment the main character, Raskolnikov, attempts to live as Nietzsche says one ought to live. He breaks free from the moral code and robs and murders two women. It was within his power to get away with his crime, but he is unable to enjoy the fruits of his crime. He goes insane with guilt and eventually confesses to the crime.
The author of this novel, Dostoevsky, spent ten years in prison and saw first hand how breaking the moral law harms ones conscience and eventually leads to insanity. Think of people who indulge their power and live completely outside of the moral law like Dahmer or Gein. One ate people and the other made people into furniture. They didn’t kill people because they were insane; rather they went insane because they killed so many people.
History is littered with kings going insane due to their obsession with power. Nero had people burned alive to light his dinner parties, Roman Emperor Caligula thought he was Hercules reincarnated and appointed his horse to the position of counsel of Rome, Bavarian King Ludwig II stuffed his mattress with the mustaches of soldiers and eventually killed himself, and Henry VIII, in paranoid delusion, killed a couple of faithful wives. It should be noted that Nietzsche himself was declared clinically insane the last ten years of his life.
Power in itself, free from all moral considerations, is not the end of man for indulging in power apart from any and all ethical restraints, as history clearly shows, leads to insanity. Every man has a conscience, a moral compass that shows one right and wrong. When man completely ignores this compass his mind breaks down. Power in itself is not the end (in the sense of perfect completion) of man, rather power is the end of man only in the sense that it leads to man’s demise.
Second objection to Nietzsche: the use of power alone is self defeating. What good is power if it is not coupled with wisdom and self control? If one lacks wisdom, but has power, what good does it do them? They may be unwise in the way they use their power and in fact defeat their own goals. Think of a king wanting to reform his country. He may have the power to do so, but if he tries to reform the country on an ad hoc basis, he will make a number of contradicting laws (at one moment raise taxes and the next moment repeal them) and defeat his purpose of reform. Power is not enough. He needs wisdom to show him how to best use his power in order to attain his goals. Power without wisdom is useless.
Similarly a man needs self control to use power productively. For example, a man may want to have sex with a number of women and have the power to make that happen. But if he doesn’t exercise self control his body will wear down and prevent him from indulging himself in the future. Similarly one who indulges their pallet eventually will not be able to enjoy food or use their body to do other things they enjoy (for they will be out of shape and in ill health). Power without self control destroys itself.
Consider the Russian Tsar Ivan IV (better known as Ivan the Terrible). He was an absolute ruler: he had all power and was accountable to none. In arrogance he insulted and struck his daughter-in-law. When his son confronted him he was so outraged that anyone would dare to question his authority that he struck his son dead on the spot. Ivan had the power to do this, but his action was unwise for in killing his son he had killed his only heir. After realizing what he had done, he wept over his action. By using his power apart from self-control he had destroyed his line, a new family would rule Russia after him. His power exercised without self control had destroyed itself.
Power is not the end of man. When exercised without moral restraint it leads to insanity. When exercised without wisdom it is ineffective. And when exercised without self control it destroys itself.
This freedom will be based on nothing more than power. Justice is the advantage of the strong. Whoever has power determines what is just: might makes right. The attainment of power is the end of man. Thus is the philosophy of Nietzsche.
Nietzsche said Christianity may attempt to explain how men ought to act, but he knows how men really act. We would all be unjust if we could get away with it. He believes that a life of unpunished injustice is the goal of all. And a life of unpunished injustice is only attainable to one with power, therefore power is the end of man. Imagine a man with a ring that gave him all power. How would a man use it? To do good? Of course not, he would use it to his advantage; he would use this power to satisfy all his desires. Every man wishes he had the power that would make him unaccountable so that he could live exactly as he wished. Power then is the central goal and end of every man.
Nietzsche is wrong in claiming that power is the end (telos) of man. First, the conscience of every man prevents him from enjoying the use of power outside of moral controls. In Crime and Punishment the main character, Raskolnikov, attempts to live as Nietzsche says one ought to live. He breaks free from the moral code and robs and murders two women. It was within his power to get away with his crime, but he is unable to enjoy the fruits of his crime. He goes insane with guilt and eventually confesses to the crime.
The author of this novel, Dostoevsky, spent ten years in prison and saw first hand how breaking the moral law harms ones conscience and eventually leads to insanity. Think of people who indulge their power and live completely outside of the moral law like Dahmer or Gein. One ate people and the other made people into furniture. They didn’t kill people because they were insane; rather they went insane because they killed so many people.
History is littered with kings going insane due to their obsession with power. Nero had people burned alive to light his dinner parties, Roman Emperor Caligula thought he was Hercules reincarnated and appointed his horse to the position of counsel of Rome, Bavarian King Ludwig II stuffed his mattress with the mustaches of soldiers and eventually killed himself, and Henry VIII, in paranoid delusion, killed a couple of faithful wives. It should be noted that Nietzsche himself was declared clinically insane the last ten years of his life.
Power in itself, free from all moral considerations, is not the end of man for indulging in power apart from any and all ethical restraints, as history clearly shows, leads to insanity. Every man has a conscience, a moral compass that shows one right and wrong. When man completely ignores this compass his mind breaks down. Power in itself is not the end (in the sense of perfect completion) of man, rather power is the end of man only in the sense that it leads to man’s demise.
Second objection to Nietzsche: the use of power alone is self defeating. What good is power if it is not coupled with wisdom and self control? If one lacks wisdom, but has power, what good does it do them? They may be unwise in the way they use their power and in fact defeat their own goals. Think of a king wanting to reform his country. He may have the power to do so, but if he tries to reform the country on an ad hoc basis, he will make a number of contradicting laws (at one moment raise taxes and the next moment repeal them) and defeat his purpose of reform. Power is not enough. He needs wisdom to show him how to best use his power in order to attain his goals. Power without wisdom is useless.
Similarly a man needs self control to use power productively. For example, a man may want to have sex with a number of women and have the power to make that happen. But if he doesn’t exercise self control his body will wear down and prevent him from indulging himself in the future. Similarly one who indulges their pallet eventually will not be able to enjoy food or use their body to do other things they enjoy (for they will be out of shape and in ill health). Power without self control destroys itself.
Consider the Russian Tsar Ivan IV (better known as Ivan the Terrible). He was an absolute ruler: he had all power and was accountable to none. In arrogance he insulted and struck his daughter-in-law. When his son confronted him he was so outraged that anyone would dare to question his authority that he struck his son dead on the spot. Ivan had the power to do this, but his action was unwise for in killing his son he had killed his only heir. After realizing what he had done, he wept over his action. By using his power apart from self-control he had destroyed his line, a new family would rule Russia after him. His power exercised without self control had destroyed itself.
Power is not the end of man. When exercised without moral restraint it leads to insanity. When exercised without wisdom it is ineffective. And when exercised without self control it destroys itself.
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