Submitted by Becca on
Image by Agata Mucha from Pixabay
“Almost everything we call ‘higher culture’ is based on the spiritualization and intensification of cruelty – this is my proposition; the ‘wild beast’ has not been laid to rest at all, it lives, it flourishes, it has merely become – deified.” – Friedrich Nietzsche
My cats used to play with one another a lot. On occasion Fee Fee would rip her nails into her brother’s neck, drawing blood. Even though Boo Boo was much stronger than his sister, he never resorted to such brutal measures. Perhaps on some primal level Fee Fee was preparing Boo Boo for the real dangers in life or perhaps she was simply acting in accordance with her nature.
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Why do you suppose a weaker creature needs to feel dominance over the stronger? Why did Napoleon compensate for his shortness by remaining on the back of a steed during public ceremonies? Why did Nietzsche run stark naked in the streets to rescue a horse that was being whipped about the eyes? Why do you suppose the writer happens to be horsing around with his words? Why doesn’t he just get to the point and be done with it? Why don’t you hold on to your horses? Why do we need to learn to control our animal instincts?
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Cruelty happens to be at the heart of human nature but few of us are bold enough to make sense of it. We rather talk around it with our backs to it, recognize it in the other person less we appear psychopath. Perhaps one of the most inventive ways of deifying this psychic propensity is through marriage. It’s rather difficult to hide the recklessness leading up to a divorce? Somehow our vindictive behaviour becomes acts of restorative justice, a way to even out the playing field in the spirit of equality, an opportunity to dish out righteous harm so that the other gets what they deserve. While in the thralls of hate it feels quite natural to cut another down in size, into little pieces. We want our pound of flesh and are willing to bite it off if need be.
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As naïve Canadians many of us believe that the world would be a better place without the U.S. Military Complex, without ever stopping to consider what would become of the thousands upon thousands of overly hostile people. What!? Do you suppose they would somehow cease to exist or come together to hold hands and sing songs of redemption. Let’s be realistic here. War, strife, power plays and deception are necessary for the human spirit to thrive. Peace breeds weakness and complacency, it reduces our innate drive.
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“I did not come to bring peace, but a sword” – The King of Kings
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For millions of years our species has been killing each other and just because we have made it into an aesthetic art during this short wrinkle of time doesn’t change the fact that we are brutal creatures. None have represented this spiritualization more stupendously than Hannibal Lector. He who justifies his acts so that he may become like God; unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood you are not worthy of eternal life said the symbolic head of divinity. Lector has no qualms with embodying the call of his master and uses his sword with precision to provide the most exquisite of Love Feasts. There’s no hiding the fact that we draw pleasure out of cruelty as a human race, thus find subtle and/or crude ways to make it acceptable if not sacred and/or sovereign.
https://metaphysicaldiscourse.wordpress.com/2022/02/05/cultural-deification-of-cruelty/