The Universe in Fecal Terms

Ever seen those bumper stickers with the pithy message reminding us that, pardon the expression, "Shit Happens"? Thucydides gave us a slightly more refined formulation of the same sentiment, "The strong do what they can, while the weak suffer what they must." Either way, the underlying thought seems a fair description of the Nietzchean view of the world we live in. What's more, in a descriptive sense our friend Friedrich has a point about the nature of the universe as we find it; much of what we see in the cosmos indicates an indifference to us, and our attempts to impose order on nature often say more about our need to make sense of our surroundings than any real rationality inherent in our world.

Nietzsche is perceptive, too, in linking the otherworldly value system (Judeo-Christian morality) that rejects purely naturalistic values to those individuals who are lacking in precisely those qualities (strength, power, health, etc.) that our status as natural beings forces us to desire. After all, Christianity historically found the greatest purchase among precisely the most down- of ancient society,and the emergence of the Jewish religion is likewise traceable to the history of subjugation of that people.

Clever as it may be, all this is not quite as subversive as it sounds; Christianity, after all, explicitly uses language and concepts such as slavery and self-denial in explaining itself. Nietzsche merely appropriates this language with a sneer. And ultimately, one must ask why the posited "slave revolt" succeeded. I would argue that it derives from the ultimate futility of the naturalistic values of the "aristocratic" morality. Even for the strong, the beautiful, the healthy, existence is ultimately hedged about by factors beyond one's control, and everything ultimately is subject to our mortality. The monotheistic religions, as with other mythological accounts of humanity, attempt to explain the origins of death and imperfection that we see in the physical realm, and furthermore offer means of ultimately countering or even conquering this chaotic reality through spiritual means.

Because of this universal appeal, this is why even those among us who do not accept the theological contentions of revealed religion are usually loath to accept Nietzsche "aristocratic" morality, or interpret the whole of Western tradition with such contempt. We are creatures of natural drives, but we know instinctively that we are not only so. We are uniquely reflective animals capable of thinking about a good life in terms not only of our immediate desires, or even of the good of the collective, but in terms of a kind of dignity that the lambs and birds of prey do not know. In crude terms, we are the one species that decides what to do with our shit.