After just three years in office as Professor of Classical Philology in Basel, Friedrich Nietzsche, true to his character, launched a general attack on the academic establishment. With his work 'The Birth of Greek Tragedy from the Spirit of Music', or 'The Birth of Tragedy' for short, Nietzsche rejected the sacred traditions of philological text interpretation and methodology and resorted to a set of instruments that would make him impossible as a scholar and as a philosopher: he rejected stylistic conventions, changed perspectives, made himself common with the object of his research and catapulted the eruptive violence of his view of the Greeks into the sphere of the greatest linguistic power. To be brief at this point: the observation of Greek theater performances in the background of the work naturally refers to the cultural-psychological decadence of his time as perceived by Nietzsche. As he generally did, so too in this work, he chose to fall back on the highest cultural levels of history in order to have a credible standard of comparison with his lived present.
And so they appeared before his eyes, the singers Aschylus, Sophocles and Euripides, these symbols of the keen eye, of the condensation of the will of a great people and, personified in the figure of Euripides, of their decline at the end of a great cultural epoch such as that of Athens. Nietzsche looked at his Prussia, at his Europe, and he suspected that the cultural means that this fatal continent would choose to address its problems would point back to collectivism, weakening the will of the individual and not making the individual any stronger, unless it took its fate into its own hands, like the fatal 'superhuman' of Zarathustra, and swung itself to the next peak of its aspirations.
But this little piece is not intended to be an interpretation of the 'Birth of Tragedy'. My aim is to extract two specific quotes that lead us back to the trail of Nietzsche and point to the traces of his own libertarian thinking. I would therefore like to briefly name these two quotes and add a few lines of thought, and I would be very happy if you would share your own thoughts on them.
- 'One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star.'
(Lovely, isn't it??)
This assertion underscores the essentiality of disorder and diversity in birthing novelty and creativity - the power cell of evolution and creative destruction. it resonates as a call to embrace the freedom of thought and action, highlighting the belief that chaos and unconventionality are essential for fostering innovation and individual growth.
- Similarly, the words of Friedrich Nietzsche echo in no. 2
'Without music, life would be a mistake.'
(- and he has been a great piano player!)
This declaration emphasizes the significance of beauty, art, and personal expression, the temporary victory of dionysian powers (in combination with the secret force of vine) that leads to the state of individuation. Through a libertarian lens, it advocates for the freedom of self-development and creative expression, the will to deconstruct artificial walls, conventions that have to be overcome and the will of free interpretation of the appearances and phenomena of the world. Recognizing the individual's liberty to express oneself through art and music underscores the importance of self-realization and personal growth, both fundamental tenets within libertarian thought.
It is important to me to emphasize at various points that this strange thinker Friedrich Nietzsche was not the disturbed egomaniac that the left-wing feuilleton likes to portray him as today. He was a highly intellectual, extremely artistically gifted, bright mind who grasped the signs of the times, which were pointing to war and statism, and drew his conclusions from them. Friedrich Nietzsche would be a teacher of freedom for today's young generation, no matter what his sister Elisabeth might have extracted and misinterprered out his work with the Nazis. Nietzsche gave birth to the dancing star of freedom and he knew about the chaos within Your sould that is necessary to create an order that would allow this star to shine brightly.
Here You find the audio book: https://youtu.be/Ma-5flxf0jA?si=s5kv7UskXa6_WWzS