have you had been allotted the
opportunity asks Michael Mix what would
you have discussed with Nietzsche well I
think I would have discussed with him
what the psycho analysts discovered in
the 20th century or what they claimed to
have discovered that which I believe was
a genuine discovery see when Nietzsche
announced the death of God which by the
way as you may know from listening to my
lectures was not precisely a trumple was
an announcement of triumph it was
announced it was a warning and the
tolling of bells of sorrow that's a
that's a good way of thinking about it
even though Nietzsche was a style
himself as a vicious an intellectually
vicious critic of institutionalized
Christianity which he certainly was it
was also a strange friend to the faith I
think in the most fundamental sense
that's the truth he wrote some things
about Christ for example which were very
positive and I think the reason he he
understood as well how important the
narrative sub structure of the
judeo-christian tradition was to the
maintenance of Western civilization hey
Anders he's one of the people I learned
that from you know so C so when
Nietzsche announced the death of God he
did it sorrowfully and and then he tried
to think about what we might be able to
do about that because it was gonna lead
us down two bad pathways either towards
nihilism and and the belief or what
would you call the direct experience
that because God was dead everything
might be permitted as as Dostoevsky
pointed out or totalitarianism which
would arise as a rational substitute for
them dogmas of religion and he knew that
that both of those would be catastrophic
occurrences and so he was trying to
figure out what we could do to to heal
ourselves I suppose as a consequence of
discreet law schism Nietzsche also
believed while I mentioned this that you
know the belief in God which is not
something so simple as belief and you
know a bearded man in the sky it's sad
to even have to say that and maybe it's
not necessary but but at least you know
more more profoundly that the death of
the idea of a an a universe ordered by
something that's akin to the living and
conscience and conscious and and aware
and intelligent so it's rough to replace
that with pure random meaninglessness
and of course that's the path weighted
nihilism anyways
Nietzsche thought we would have to
create our own values to replace those
that would fall because of the death of
Christianity and the psychoanalysts
Freud and Jung particularly young but
Freud began it I think and you made this
explicit I think found a fatal flaw and
Nietzsche's theorizing and maybe it's a
fatal flaw in relationship to modernism
per se even to the idea of rational
thought itself as master of its own
house he you're not you can't make your
own values if you can aim you can direct
your life you can you can cooperate in
determining the values that you pursue
but you cooperate with forces in
yourself that aren't you and can't be
made you not not in any straightforward
way and it's easy to understand this if
you think about for example the fact
that if you do something that you
shouldn't do or if you don't do
something that you should do that you'll
lay awake in bed at night and torment
yourself about it and worry about it and
consider yourself an unworthy person you
know as if you believed in the idea of
sin it's a very strange thing that
there's an ethic that calls to you from
within that you can't control that
that holds you responsible for your
actions that's just one of many sub
personalities in some sense that are
operative within people and it depends I
suppose on how integrated their
personality is though less integrated
people are more different depending on
what emotional state they're in but you
know the the you that's overwhelmed with
grief or the you that's overwhelmed with
with love or lust or or the you that's
overwhelmed with anger possessed by
those things is really often by no means
the same you that you like to think of
yourself as when you're under full
conscious control and and in your normal
state of mind I mean even the idea of
drunkenness intoxication that's
possession by a spirit right that's why
whisky is a spirit it's the spirit of
Dionysius and you drink and you become
something that you normally aren't you
know they say in vino veritas but it's
not necessarily reasonable to believe
that everything you do and say well
you're intoxicated by alcohol is true
the point is that there are multiple
personalities that work within you and
they have a fair bit of autonomy like a
stranger Tana me if you could just
create your own values you could imagine
in some sense you'd be doing what
Raskolnikov tried to do in crime and
punishment which is a book I'd really
recommend he believed that Nietzsche an
idea that you could create your own
values as a consequence he decided to
murder a terrible old woman who was
opressing many of the people in her
neighborhood and seemed loved by no one
and hated by everyone and who was a
vicious slave master to her not very
bright nice and Raskolnikov thought that
he could do away with her that would
that would get him out of some financial
trouble and then he would do good things
with the money and that if he was a real
Superman in some sense in the
Nietzschean manner of thinking that he
could just dispense with all the guilt
that might logically be associated with
murder because after all if there's no
God everything is permitted and we can
create our own values and
Crime and Punishment is an unbelievably
deep study of what happens when you
cross a line that you shouldn't have
crossed because of your own arrogance
and so the Skolnick off this is a
thriller this this book you know a real
detective story well he I hate I'm not
gonna blow the plot but he he's sort of
successful in the murder he gets away
with it although it doesn't exactly turn
out the way he expects even the act
itself and but what he discovers in the
aftermath of what he did is that he was
no where near as in control of himself
and his personality and his emotional
reactions and he says he thought and he
tortures himself for a very long time
with very interesting psychological and
social consequences as well as driving
the plot ahead very rapidly with what
what he's done absolute start
traumatised disbelief at what he's done
and so what I'd like to ask Nietzsche
because that's the question that I'm
supposed to be answering is given the
mutability of man the fact that we are
composed of multiple sub personalities
which by the way was something that
Nietzsche actually mentioned and that I
believe that both Freud and you relied
on when they were formulating their
psychoanalytic theories given the fact
that we aren't masters of our own houses
given the fact that were divided amongst
ourselves how in the world is it
possible for us to develop our own
values when when we're a mass of
internal contradictions and were and
each of those contradictions is a
consequence of something live trying to
make its case made you know like if you
were your own creation whatever that
might mean if you are in full control of
your own consciousness and emotions and
motivations well then you certainly
wouldn't be guilty about things you
didn't do or did do because you could
just revamp your value structure at will
to optimize let's say your emotional
state and you know it's good to some
degree to be able to do that to cheer
yourself up and to dampen your grief
but man you know it is in control of
yourself as you'd like to think and
you're haunted by many things that you
could be and many things that you are
one of the things that really terrified
me I think enough to change when I was
to change the way I was living when when
I was studying what psychology was that
encounter with that psychoanalytic idea
that you're not alone in your psyche you
know you can even tell that if you're a
student if you're trying to read
something that you have to read you know
there's difference between reading
something you have to read and something
that you want to read if you want to
read it you can just read it if you have
to read it you might not read it at all
you might just procrastinate endlessly
even even if there's an important
outcome like an exam even if the
consequence of that exam might be
failing a course and destroying your
academic record you'll still find
yourself very resistant to read the
paper unless you happen to be personally
interested in it and that's so
interesting too because even at that
level you're not the sort of person that
can create their own values man you
can't even convince yourself to read a
piece of complex writing if you're a
university student enrolled in a course
that you chose that that assignment is
part of and so that's a pretty good
indication of just how many directions
you're pulled in simultaneously so I
would really like to discuss that with
Nietzsche I would like to know what he
thinks thought about that you know maybe
he thought that despite our disability
and the multiplicity of our personality
that the possibility or the necessity of
creating our own values was the only
chance we have but but but what see what
I learned from Jung and and this is the
probably the most profound thing I
learned I think of all the things that I
know perhaps is that values aren't
created they're discovered and they're
discovered through a consultation with
the parts of yourself that you're not
conscious of that you're not fully
conscious of that aren't articulated
that aren't fully articulated elements
of your primary personality you
to discover what your values are and
you're informed about that well partly
by other people who will object if your
values aren't appropriate but certainly
by a dialogue with yourself and with
your conscience that's that's a very
important thing to know it's part of the
reason why I think that you need to tell
the truth because you're forced to
negotiate with yourself to operate
properly in the world and if you've
warped yourself let's say or some
elements of yourself by engaging in self
deception and lies and and you're not
now because of that you're not who you
could be and you don't live in the world
as you should live in it then when you
discuss with yourself what your value
should be it will be as if you're
discussing it with someone that you
can't trust and that's that's not good
like you you can't afford that life is
difficult and it contains many pitfalls
and unless you're careful and you
certain your cell phone properly and you
aim high and walk on the straight and
narrow path you don't have a hope of
understanding where you should be and at
what time when the crisis hits and the
crisis will hit so you want to get all
those little sub personalities in line
if you can it's part of the reason for
example why you who thought you had me
integrate your shadow which is the dark
part of your character thought that was
necessary or or would go and have a
little autonomous life of its own
maybe manifesting itself for example
when you're angry or drunk instead of
integrated into the rest of your
personality like a properly disciplined
player in a complex and sophisticated
game so
