Nietzsche’s Nobility
From “Of Reading and Writing” and “Of the Tree on the Mountainside”
Nobility
In Thus Spoke Zarathustra Nietzsche writes of a young man standing on a mountainside, leaning on a symbolic tree that represents his mind. Down below him lies Pied Cow. Pied Cow is a town that is only mentioned once, suggesting the relative importance of it and its inhabitants. If the Pied Piper was a town instead of a person, he would be Pied Cow.
That everyone can learn to read will ruin in the long run not only writing, but thinking too. (“Of Reading and Writing,” Thus Spoke Zarathustra)
Most of us are townspeople. We don’t know or care about the symbolism of the tree on the mountainside. I am not only referring to the residents of Pied Cow. The typical reader doesn’t see the purpose of the tree. Nietzsche communicated his contempt for these readers in the above passage.
Reading on its own is destructive, because Nietzsche sees reading as mutually exclusive from thinking and writing. Or more harshly put, a good number of people can’t understand much.
It is not an easy thing to understand unfamiliar blood: I hate the reading idler…
He who knows the reader, does nothing further for the reader….
In the mountains the shortest route is from peak to peak, but for that you must have long legs. Aphorisms should be peaks, and those to whom they are spoken should be big and tall of stature.
The best reading consist of purpose, spirit, and aphorisms. Writing that way brings out something that is worth being read. Imagine writing with your own blood. To write would be to suffer with a piece yourself left on each page. If blood was a special ink that held meaning inside of it, what would your blood say? Do not cut yourself if you only know what is laid out in front of you. Do not strain your eyes if you can not understand new truths.
I no longer feel as you do: this cloud which I see under me, this blackness and heaviness at which I laugh — precisely this is your thunder cloud.
You look up when you desire to be exalted. And I look down, because I am exalted.
Each one of us knows what direction we go for satisfaction. For some of us, it is a drink, or a comfort food that hits the right spot. Others have to go out into the public and be seen. A few must perpetually ponder, search, discuss, and create to be at peace. If your natural temptation is short-sighted and very attainable, and your satisfaction comes likewise, then you stay grounded content in your groundedness. I use the term grounded because when your exaltation is right in front of you, you will cease quickly. You can not climb while you are still. So if your natural desire is for cake, a hug, or a nice outfit, then your true satisfaction comes from quenching those thirst and you are grounded; below the cloud. If your natural inclination is wisdom, it is hard to find exaltation. There is no end to the search for knowledge. So, while others are grounded, those with the right purpose can fly.
If I wanted to shake this tree with my hands I should be unable to do it.
But the wind, which we cannot see, torments it and bends it where it wishes. It is invisible hands that torment and bend us the worst…..
– Now it is with men as with this tree. (“Of the Tree on the Mountainside,” Thus Spoke Zarathustra)
The young man on the mountainside from “Of the Tree on the Mountainside” in Thus Spoke Zarathustra is conflicted. He doesn’t know what he is seeking when Zarathustra approaches him and tells him he should imagine himself as the tree. And he tells the young man of mind’s great power.
The more it wants to rise into the heights and the light, the more determinedly do its roots strive earthwards, downwards, into the darkness, into the depths — into evil.
‘Yes, into evil!’ cried the young man….
As mentioned before, some people naturally pursue knowledge. That is the tree’s climb. That’s how a few people grow above the dark clouds to create new truths. However, most can not get to that point. Many are so focused on themselves and do not know these clouds exist. That is because what the dark clouds represent is written in blood.
You can not understand that which is beyond you. What you do not understand brings fear. Just like how you get scared before jumping out of airplane for the first time. You are scared because you are unsure of the outcome. But those who have the wisdom to grow above the clouds, leave fear and ignorance behind.
The wise man is an individual entity, as is the town, the mob, the person, and the subreddit. You will grow beyond them as your desire to pursue answers, knowledge, and ideas leads you to a higher place. A place where fiction can not pass as fact. A view where all intentions, good or bad, are known, and a perspective that allows you to realize, discern, and measure every possibility is where you will be. The voyage that gets you there is motivated by and fueled with wisdom. Wisdom brings discovery. Therefore discovering that those you are ascending past are wrong. The wiser you become, the more dishonest you must be if you want to relate, and the more guiltless you need to be to honestly express your noble dialect. When your tree gets to a certain height, loneliness comes.
If a touring weightlifter wants to work out with an amateur, all he has to do is change the weights. The NBA player that wants to hoop with some random guys can always do so. If a pro boxer goes to box an old man, he will go to jail where he will be with other criminals. When an Olympic sprinter works with Paralympians, everyone involved can participate. If your discussion or activity is an intellectual one and at a certain level, others can not take part.
When I ascend I often jump over steps, and no step forgives me that.
In accordance with Nietzsche’s concept of writing in blood, if you have a low reading level, you cannot understand aphoristic writing. Interpreting code is impossible if you do not know programming. You can not discuss, read, or use Mandarin if you do not know the language. Intellectual endeavors have strict barriers to entry. Most can’t see this barrier when it is right in front of them. So they try to scream at it. Writers, philosophers, and other wise men that communicate new truths often get mobs and brigades against them. It’s because those mobs can’t understand new truths, do not want to understand it, while being told what to understand. Not to mention they don’t want change either, and fear getting left behind by that change.
When I am aloft, I always find myself alone. No one speaks to me, the frost of solitude makes me tremble.
Alone is a place most people do not want to be. Not only socially, but in spirit, thought, and relatability. To not only have few people to talk to, but to have even fewer who understand.
This tree stands here alone on the mountainside; it has grown up high above man and animal.
And if it wished to speak, it would find no one who understood it: so high has it grown.
Solitude comes from thinking and operating on a plane above the dark clouds. The young man on the mountainside in Thus Spoke Zarathustra fell silent here, but I will offer some writing in blood. Truth is not a lie. You must know the truth to realize something is not true. That means the truth must be known for a lie to be possible. If you do not know what color the red is, or that cherries are red, then you do not know that cherries being blue is a lie. However, if you know a red cherry is the truth, then you know the cherry being said to be blue is a lie. The red cherry, the truth, exists. The blue cherry does not. If truth exists, the lie can not. A lie is nothing. If you say a circle is a square. The square, the lie, does not exist. A lie is nothing. If you are fake or a lie, what are you? Zarathustra, who knows of the greatest heights, speaks to the man discovering new truths.
Now it waits and waits — yet what is it waiting for? It lives too near the seat of the clouds: is it waiting, perhaps, for the first lighting?
Now you are not at the top, but above. The top we know is an elite, highly sought after place or stature. The above here is not a typical aspiration. No one wants to stay alone and misunderstood. At the top, people can see what you have gained, and above they can not. So does your pursuit and use of wisdom stop because you are headed above and not to the top? Should you keep growing if the reward is more misunderstanding? The answer to those questions for many is to return to Pied Cow.
You long for open heights, your soul thirsts for the stars. But your bad instincts too thirst for freedom.
Reasons or motivation to reach great heights can only come from within yourself. For example, you can not know if you are always right if you do not keep growing. Not growing when you have the ability to grow means you are settling for spoils or lack the drive. Bowing to authority is something you can do to reap benefits instead of wisdom.
…Learn that everyone finds the noble man an obstruction.
The good, too, find the noble man an obstruction: and even when they call him a good man they do so in order to make away with him.
With wisdom as food, a mind that grows to the height of being free and leaves behind the need for desire to conform or be subordinate, and therefore has become noble. True nobility springs from personal intellectual growth. A potency with the use of wisdom that Zarathustra says brings many unwanted changes, which is hard not to notice, and also hard to like. Imagine a new manager gets hired and has better ideas than everyone about everything. They should do things his way, not yours. You need to learn his methods. You need to ask him questions. He knows the new right and better way, and you only know the old useful but inferior way. Even the present boss should clearly demote himself and become the new manager’s subordinate. Nobles, to Zarathustra, are intellectual elites.
When nobility is noticed, it can not simply be ignored. If the good must, they will claim it as their own. The good will hire you, make you their spokesperson, and have you write for them. Now your nobleness is not yours, it is theirs and has been made good. The noble must not compromise his truth.
The noble man wants to create new things and a new virtue. The good man wants the old things and that the old things shall be preserved.
Nobility sends new truths down below the clouds. The good want what comes from the nobleman to melt away like snow falling on warm cement. That’s because things have to change if it sticks, that is the essence of nobleness. The noble’s conclusions come from incomparable wisdom, because nobility has the highest, best view. Those who are noble have risen because they have learned new truths and have refuted old lies. The good know that but do not want to change. The good only want to stay good.
But it is not the danger for the noble man — that he may become a good man — but that he may become an impudent one, a derider, a destroyer….
Henceforth they lived impudently in brief pleasures, and they had hardly an aim beyond the day.
In short, for the nobleman, keep your hope and virtue and stay humble. Stay focused on goals that are in respect to your inherent wisdom, or you will wade in the pettiness of under-utilization.
