hi and welcome back to the understanding
Nietzsche series I apologize for not
producing videos as much this week
there's been a a few things I had to
sort out but anyway let's get back to
the last section of what I wanted to
talk about the herd instinct and norms
and I wanted to talk about what what is
a herd? well a herd, we can say is a
group that is held together by shared
norms and members of the group are led
to follow these norms by all of the
strands of herd instinct that we noted
in the previous video and a lot more
these strands tie them together in
following a set of normative scripts a
herd 'form of life', this is a term that we
will be returning to throughout this
whole series we should keep in mind that
the idea of a herd is an ideal type for
example an extreme or pure case there
probably is no group that completely lives up to
in reality some human groups are more
herd-like some less probably no group is
only held together by norms by herd
instinct many kinds of motivations lead
humans to form and maintain groups
individual projects and self interests
ties of love and affinity and much more
but perhaps on the other hand every
human group is at least to some degree a
herd the power of norms of Herd
instinct is very deep and very
strong so herds can be found everywhere
although arguably big groups have
particularly strong herd tendencies
there can also be small herds and even
herds of two or three again as I
introduced this section about the herd
instinct 'as long as there have been
humans there have also been human herds'
and that includes clans communities
tribes peoples States and churches
rebels and anarchists also form herds so
for instance a good place to find study
of her behavior is in a meeting or
assembly in a meeting I may find myself
imitating everything from the postures
to the ideas of others I may identify
and abide by local norms and customs or
at least if I become aware of it feel a
strong impulsion to do so I may find
myself also identifying esteemed members
like alpha males charismatic models of
righteousness and outside is abnormal
scapegoats antisocial individuals who
threaten the Peace of the norms I may
feel the desire to be accepted, liked,
listened to, desired, respected, find
myself participating in factions
in-groups and out-groups
I may even find myself turning on
opponents and outsiders perhaps with
a ferocity I can justify by the urgent
need to prove a crucial point or perhaps
on the other hand I deliberately caused
controversy
revel in an outsider status
enjoying being different and superior to
the others could this to be a kind of
inverted form of herd instinct?
We're going to start to
talk about what it means to become an
individual and this will introduces into
the next section where we will talk
about the sovereign individuals and a
few other concepts features about
becoming and overcoming so we are not
born individuals individuals are made
and only ever in completely the most
general picture of a human being in
Nietzsche's thought is not an individual
but a dividual a body of drives of many
diverse patterns habits structures of
valuing desiring acting thinking feeling
and becoming these multiple forces pull
in different directions so that a human
is divided perhaps
chaotic, thoughts of struggles,
inconsistencies, contradictions, tensions,
adventures and hesitations, or a body may
become ordered into a more stable kind
of being with more predictable routines,
fixed habits, striving instincts and
perhaps lasting aspirations long-term
commitments life projects Nietzsche uses
the term individual in different ways
throughout his writing sometimes he
denies that individuals exist at all
more often he wants to
reserve the term for human bodies of a
particular kind we are not all
individuals or at least not all of the
time anyway but individuality is
something to aspire to one of these most
powerful contributions to these kinds of
questions is his idea of the sovereign
individual which he discusses in the
genealogy of morals and that will be the
subject of the next video okay take care
talk to you soon
