Da Dos

Tag: Nietzsche

  • World Cup Class

    World Cup Class

    I’m a casual soccer fan. By that, I mean, I only watch the World Cup [W.C.] once every four years, and I missed the last one.

    I don’t exactly know what the positions are, or what they’re supposed to do, memorize the formations, or which players are elite or hot, nor the intricacies of the rules or procedures. Contain general knowledge of history, traditions, and just about everything else. Soccer, surprisingly, was one of the few major sports I didn’t really play.

    Sports is extremely regional. I met a guitarist from Alaska who couldn’t believe I never played hockey. “There weren’t too many hockey rinks in L.A. in the 80s.” Shoulda asked him how many rugby players he knew in The Last Frontier. Even BMXing, skateboarding, snowboarding, surfing in L.A. was more prevalent than hockey.

    But that’s the fantastic part about fútbol. You don’t NEED to be an expert, and that’s likely why women follow it more than football or baseball [fit models sweating for 90 mins doesn’t hurt]. Soccer resembles NBA in that sense. Flow, action, relatively limited Xs and Os; much more about Jimēs and Joes…

    I don’t know what a 9 or a 10 refers to unless it’s to the WC hotties, and that’s ok!

    “Don’t invite a food critic over to dinner.”

    Nietzsche proposed that we have the Apollonian plus the Dionysian.

    Apollonian was reason, harmony – order. Poetry.

    Dionysian = feeling, passion, rapture – Music

    He claimed the Greeks nailed it with their religious celebration in which they recited poetry/drama and also played music – all in arcadian landscapes beneath the crisp twinkling stars and dark rolling hills, which connected citizens, to the state, ea other, nature and the gods.

    William Faulkner hinted that African American churches approximate those ancient Greeks with their preaching, singing, and dancing – an interactive exultation with less rote kneeling, standing, recitations; it’s both individual and communal [as well as cosmic if one believes].

    To this day when I go to poetry readings, musicians almost always do a set, or even play in the background of readers; goes without saying, plenty of spirits flowing. If an art gallery hosts ‘the happening’, or occasional stand-up comedian attends, well, there ya go. Complete immersion.

    Nietzsche also recommends that we listen to music in a language we don’t comprehend because the point of music is to transport – not to convince – and sometimes our reason acts like a speed bump to the divine. Gotta bypass the superego – after all, isn’t that what love – the most transformative and redemptive human feature – is?

    All of which is to say – sometimes being a casual fan of any field – has its perks.

    A 10 yr old boy isn’t going to be screaming at the TV that the formation doesn’t optimize the talent, that they lack pace and pressure, or that the manager needs to sub x, y, z…

    A 10 yr old is going to savor the game like my GF enjoyed watching the Bears beat the Puke [TWICE!] last season – by basking in the tension, the energy, the Dionysian drama.

    NTM Ole Butcho losing his mind.

    Watching World Cup makes me a child again in that sense. It’s a nice break from the Apollonian,

    “Why didn’t we trade up for Aaron Donald!”
    “Why is Marion Barber running out of bounds!”
    “Why isn’t Flus calling a damn TO!!!”
    “Why isn’t the NFL awarding the Bears comp picks!”

    Serenity now, serenity now…

    That being said, you can’t Homer your way through life. Voltaire, arguably the smartest man of his age, was disturbed by his neighbor whom he judge to be more content.

    Who was his neighbor – some wise Himalayan sage? Nope. Some nobody. That’s what disturbed him. Here he was a man of renown, books, accolades, wit and genius – even the King couldn’t kill him because ‘one does not arrest Voltaire,’ yet some nosy barely literate homebody was indubitably HAPPIER than him by his own account.

    Henry David Thoreau experienced the same when he escaped to the wilderness and crossed a lumberjack/trapper in the woods. He envied how such a simple man can instinctively connect to nature and peace without much schooling, reading or critical thinking.

    Nevertheless, short of a lobotomy, neither Voltaire nor Thoreau could ever become them.

    “It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied.” – John Stuart Mill.

    However, we can become a pig for a summer! OINK OINK! We can roll in the mud, samba, down steins, and shout in raw intoxicating exuberance:

    GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOALLLLLLLL!!!!!

  • Broken Statues

    Broken Statues

    Those of you familiar with my posts through the years know I like Zen. However, I also appreciate Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
    Some may see this as paradoxical since Nietzsche essentially deems Eastern Philosophy [and Christianity] ultimately too passive and nihilistic
    After all, what can be more ridiculous than “the will to nothingness”?
    But hey, Zen is all about paradoxes, as is Nietzsche

    “For if a poet should be consistent
    How could he ever show things existent?” – some Romantic, likely Shelly

    I’m no Nietzsche acolyte [believe me, you run across them in certain circles], but he is what I would coin a “dark prophet”

    A keen eye that observes humanity and comes away mostly disgusted

    Much in the same vein as Machiavelli, Thomas Hobbes or more recently the Coen Brothers

    With that in mind, I came across a fascinating breakdown as to why power corrupts, and why humans fall for strongmen such as Caesar, Napoleon, Najib Razak, Putin…

    I cannot recommend this psychological topology enough

    ——-crib notes———

    • According to Harvard and University of Chicago, 40% of corrupt politicians in certain regions consistently win elections – why?

    “Sometimes you need someone willing to break the rules” and “They get things done”

    • “When personal control feels impossible during economic instability, social upheaval, or personal failure, we become susceptible to anyone who offers us a share in their apparent power”
    • “Ressentiment” – a festering psychological condition born from perceived powerlessness, suppressed vengeance and redirected rage:

    “Man would rather will nothingness than will nothing at all”

    Some would rather destroy than meekly watch; at least destruction gives the illusion of personal power

    • “When we elevate leaders to heroic or even quasi-religious status, we become invested in defending their mythic image rather than evaluating their actual behavior. Supporters of controversial leaders often integrate their personal identity with narratives about their leader’s greatness. Abandoning their leader would require reconstructing their own identity making criticism feel like self-betrayal”
    • “Beware that statue does not crush you”

    “Ozymandias”

    Percy Bysshe Shelley
    1792 –1822

    I met a traveller from an antique land,
    Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
    Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,
    Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
    And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
    Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
    Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
    The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
    And on the pedestal, these words appear:
    My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
    Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
    Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
    Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
    The lone and level sands stretch far away.”