The Individual and the Crowd: Nietzsche's Take

When I was in college studying philosophy, I purchased a copy of Friedrich Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil. When I got home I noticed something unusual about the book. It began on page 16, then went to pages 15, 14, 13 etc to the Title Page. It was a most unusual way to read a book, I thought. 

Several years later I worked briefly in a printshop that published books and discovered how that error occurred. The way books are assembled involves printing sheets of paper with 12, 16, 24 or 32 pages on a sheet (with printing on both sides) which is then folded into what are called signatures. These are then collated so that they can be assembled in their proper order by another machine which stitches them together after which they are trimmed and boxed. 

For whatever reason, the publishing house somehow got the first signature backward, thereby creating a "memorable moment" with regards to Nietzsche.

I am in no way going to agree with everything Nietzsche wrote, or what has been attributed to him, but he's certainly been an acute observer of human nature. He also wrote with a keen wit and pointed pen. I say this as a preface to a few comments he made on individuals and crowds.

There is a tension that runs through human history, one that never quite goes away. It is the tension between the individual and the crowd. Because we live in social relationships with others, what happens when our private beliefs are out of sync with the dominant belief systems?

Nietzsche saw it clearly. In Beyond Good and Evil, he wrote, “The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe.” It is a simple observation, but one that carries more truth than we might like to admit.

As social creatures, we long to belong. The pull of the group—whether it be political, cultural, or ideological—is powerful. It offers identity, approval, and a ready-made way of seeing the world. To stand apart can be costly, especially today.

Nietzsche presses the point further: “Madness is rare in individuals—but in groups, parties, nations, and ages it is the rule.” Fifty years later the world experienced global tremors as a result of the national madness of the Third Reich. 

Crowds do not merely amplify ideas; they intensify them. They simplify, reduce, and often distort. What might seem unreasonable to a lone person can, in the momentum of a group, begin to feel not only acceptable, but necessary. 

This is where the work of Gustave Le Bon comes into play which I wrote about earlier this past month. In that particular blog post I was addressing crowd behavior, especially mobs. But there is a subtler aspect to crowd pressures on individuals. That is, the expectations of peers. In high school you may have been expected to go to college. As a result, many go who really aren't ready or aren't even college material. Their reward is not career success but rather the handicap of college debt. 

And today, peer pressure can come from people we've never met other than through their handles on social media. 

Expectations driven by peer pressure can cloud one's thinking. When we make life decisions based on what others expect of us, we can spend a lot of time kicking ourselves afterwards.

Nietzsche makes another observation that can be unsettling: “He who cannot obey himself will be commanded.” Self-mastery is not a popular idea. It requires discipline, reflection, and a willingness to stand alone when necessary. And a willingness to be misunderstood.

Without a sense of calling or purpose, we become susceptible—open to being shaped by whatever voice speaks the loudest or the most persuasively. Hint: God speaks in a still, small voice.*

The crowd isn't always wrong, but it is rarely careful. To live thoughtfully requires a kind of resistance—not rebellion for its own sake, but the quiet work of examining what we believe and why. It means holding fast to conscience, even when it is inconvenient.

In the end, the question is not whether we will be influenced. We all are. The question is whether we will be governed from within… or from without. 

*1 Kings 19:11-13

Nietzsche's and Mann's Divergent Views on Wagner

Richard Wagner (Public doain)

I recently finished reading the diaries of Thomas Mann for a second time now. The first was perhapes 30 years ago. (I'd have to serach my own diaries to find the precise year) When I read this volume back then it was a library book. Earlier this summer I found it on the free books discard shelf, a real steal.

The diary entries cover only a portion of Mann's life and career. In part one we read entries from 1918 to 1921. The diary then jumps ahead to 1933 and covers the six year preceding the start of World War II.

A bit of personal trivia: The first entry is September 11, which happens to be my birthday.

There are a number of interesting details here beyond the historical context of these two periods in his life. Throughout Mann records what he is reading--Tolstoy, Cervantes, Proust, etc. He also makes note of what times he goes to bed (nearly always after reading a while), what time he wakens (usually 8 a.m.) and what medicines he is taking. He records whom he is corresponding with, and what writing project or projects he is working on.

There are numerous entries devoted to Richard Wagner, whom he writes about and goes on a lecture tour to discuss. What interested me is how divergent his views on Wagner were from Friedrich Nietzche's.

For both Thomas Mann and Friedrich Nietzsche the German composer Richard Wagner was a towering figure in 19th-century European culture. While both thinkers engaged deeply with Wagner’s music and philosophy, their perspectives reflecteddifferent relationships to his legacy and their own evolving philosophies.

* * *

In his early years Nietzsche had been a passionate Wagner enthusiast. Later, however, he became one of Wagner’s most severe critics, devoting a whole book to the guy, The Case of Wagner (1888).

Initially, Nietzsche was captivated by Wagner’s music, seeing in it a revolutionary spirit that resonated with his own philosophical ideals of breaking away from the constraints of bourgeois morality. Nietzsche admired Wagner’s grand operatic visions, particularly the blending of myth, music, and drama to create what Wagner termed the Gesamtkunstwerk (total work of art). Nietzsche saw in Wagner’s early operas, like The Ring of the Nibelung, a reflection of the Dionysian spirit—a celebration of primal, life-affirming forces that Nietzsche explored in his first major work, The Birth of Tragedy (1872).

Friedrich Nietzsche

However, Nietzsche’s view of Wagner dramatically shifted as he began to see Wagner as embodying the very decadence and cultural decline that he despised. Ironically, when I read The Case of Wagner I was flying to "Sin City" on a business trip and back. There is probably no greater symbol of empty decadence than Las Vegas. The book itself is a scathing, personal attack on an artist he once revered.*

By way of contrast Mann admired Wagner and was influenced by his synthesis of music and mythology. Mann appreciated the way Wagner blended Germanic legends with profound philosophical ideas. He saw Wagner's genius and admired his innovations. In his essay The Sorrows and Grandeur of Richard Wagner (1933), Mann grappled with the duality of Wagner’s genius: the grandeur of his artistic vision alongside his troubling associations with German nationalism and proto-fascist ideas. Mann recognized Wagner's flaws while still appreciating his art.  Mann was concerned that Wagner's work could be exploited by reactionary forces, a hunch that turned out to be right in the 30's.

  

The key difference between Nietzsche and Mann’s views on Wagner lies in the depth of their disillusionment. Nietzsche’s break with Wagner was total and deeply personal, stemming from philosophical disillusionment with Wagner’s later works. Mann, while critical of Wagner’s political and moral implications, maintained a more balanced view, appreciating his artistic genius while recognizing his dangerous cultural influence.  

As you reflect on your lifetime of interests and passions, what have been your greatest disillusionments? What did you learn from these experiences?

Hitchcock's Rope: Morality, Guilt and the Tension of Secrets

Photo by Mockup Graphics on Unsplash

Monday evening the film Rope was on one of the cable networks, and even though I've seen this Jimmy Stewart classic several times I couldn't help but watch it yet again. What makes it a great film isn't just the acting and the dialogue, but also the psychological probing and collision of philosophical ideas that director Hitchcock explores.

Based on Patrick Hamilton's book by the same name, it later became a play before being adapted to film in 1948. It's a story of two young men, Brandon Shaw and Phillip Morgan, who strangle their friend David Kentley and then invite his friends and family over for dinner. The body is hidden in a chest in the middle of the room, and the two men pretend that David is still alive while offering various suggestions for his absence.

One of the guests is Rupert Cadell, a philosophy professor whom Shaw and Morgan admired when they were his students at University. Brandon is proud of what they have done, Phillip is rattled by the terror of being found out. It's one thing to imagine doing something audacious, quite another thing to actually do it. 

When David Kentley fails to show up for the party, Rupert begins to suspect something is amiss. Little by little the pressure is on, and Phillip begins to sweat. As the evening unfolds, Rupert's suspicions feel a little like thumbscrews being applied by a master tormentor. 

Brandon is so proud of his "achievement" that he's not concerned about Rupert's inquisitiveness. Phillip, however, begins drinking heavily to calm his nerves. Like a bloodhound, once Rupert is on the trail he's determined to follow it wherever it leads. When he finally discovers Kentley's body, the story is not yet over. Brandon points out how Professor Cadell's own words were what inspired him. 

And what were these words? Rupert had presented Nietzsche's concept of the Ubermensch, the "Superman." The Superman is not constrained by the conventional morality of the common man. Brandon justified their murdering someone as a philosophical decision, their way of demonstrating their superiority, that they belonged to the class of "exceptional people."

For Brandon, committing the perfect murder was something akin to an art project. The flawless execution of his idea was his way of proving his eminence. Living inside the bubble of his imagination, he assumed Rupert would actually appreciate his achievement.

Both perpetrators fell victim to the self-deception that they could detach themselves from the consequences of their actions. Guilt has a corrosive effect on one's conscience, and as the party proceeded it became increasingly difficult to hold normal conversations. As Neil Young once sang. "How slow and slow and slow it goes to mend the tear that always shows."

In past viewings, I focused on the masterful manner in which Hitchcock built suspense. Also, the way he creates situations in which everything occurs within a tight space. Lifeboat is an example of this, as is Rear Window. In the latter, as in Rope, there is a sense in which the audience is present in the room, watching voyeuristically.

The story explores power and manipulation as well. Paul Tournier's The Strong and the Weak examines how people react differently to external circumstances. Brandon's dominance is clear, and Phillip goes along with Brandon's smooth-talking persuasive arguments. How many people have "gone along" with things they felt uncomfortable with, that violated their foundational beliefs because they failed to be strong, failed to take a stand? Whether it be a gang or a simply a relationship, things get messy when values are at odds. In the end, both characters will suffer the same consequences and be held accountable for their crime. 

We can pity Phillip but in a court of law he was an accessory to murder and likely will not get a break in the courts.

* * *

Postscript
In 1979-80 I met a man who had been an accessory to murder. I was in Puerto Rico at the time. His uncle had planned to murder a man in Chicago and the nephew was used to lure the victim into an alley where the uncle took the man's life. Both the uncle and his nephew, whom I will call Antonio here, went to prison. Antonio's wife, a strong Christian, visited him every day no matter the weather. (She had to take a bus and walk miles to get there and home.) Her sacrificial love broke his heart and he gave his life to the Lord. When I met him he had a beautiful spirit and was dedicated to helping others to make a different choice from the one he made years earlier with his uncle. The hardships he'd endure, his wife's love and the mercy of God changed him on the inside. He approached life with humility because of what he had been through.

There's a Middle Eastern proverb that goes like this: The same sun that hardens clay melts wax. We all make mistakes and sometimes especially bad choices. How we respond determines the "what next" of our own lives.

It would be interesting to see how the story of Rupert, Brandon and Phillip plays out. One of these young men may become hardened bitterness whereas the other's eyes are opened and sees things in a new way. Perhaps Rupert will write a book that addresses these issues, that counters the creeping cynicism and amorality fostered by Nietzsche, Existentialism and (later) post-modernism.

What are your thoughts on this?

Flashback Friday: Nietzsche Quotes and a Few Comments on Sex

"Sensuality often hastens the growth of love so much that the roots remain weak and are easily torn up." 

--Friedrich Nietzsche

This blog post was originally published in 2018 as I was reading Beyond Good & Evil.  The book is a collection of aphorisms, including the one at the top of this page which I've been thinking about lately because one can hardly escape from noticing how much we live in a sex-obsessed culture. 

Unrestrained sexual activity is a normal part of the landscape in Huxley's dystopian portrait of the future of humanity, Brave New World. As sex, drugs, and rock 'n roll became a mantra for many in the Boomer generation, they may have been blind to the corrosive effect it was having on long term relationships as they became trees without roots. This may explain why the U.S. divorce rate exploded in our generation. 

 

* * * 

May 2018

I Think, Therefore I Am... Or Am I?

The past couple weeks I’ve been accompanied by Nietzsche’s Beyond Good & Evil (audiobook) while commuting here and there. Nietzsche is probably one of the most maligned philosophers in history, pigeonholed as either a kook or as the author of the provocative “God is dead” proclamation.

The reality is that the feisty German was an astute observer with quite the sense of humor at times. He loved his mustache, for example, which he gleefully wore like a mask. He also got a kick out of kicking over sacred cows. At least that’s been my take.

In one place he takes aim at Descartes, who after a lengthy attempt to determine whether he existed or not concluded, “I think, therefore, I am.” The declaration, Nietzsche explains, rests on a questionable foundation. That is, do we really think? By way of illustration he notes how thoughts frequently pop into his head out of nowhere. Where do these thoughts come from? Is that really thinking?

It made me think of Martin Luther’s response to a person whose mind is being pestered by evil thoughts. Luther said, “You can’t stop a bird from landing on your head, but you can keep it from building a nest there.”

In other words, in that scenario our thoughts (often) come flitting in from elsewhere like birds or, more annoyingly, mosquitoes.

And yet, my brain is working as I work out how to construct this series of statements to make a point of sorts. To what degree am I thinking and to what degree are associations being assembled by my subconscious or unconscious, thus bypassing real thinking? I dunno. I suppose it’s something to think about.

* * * *
10 Nietzsche Epigrams and Interludes*

Some pointed, some pithy, some that make people apoplectic--Nietzsche was famous for his epigrams and aphorisms. 

73a
Many a peacock hides his peacock tail from all eyes--and calls that his pride.

97
What? A great man? I always see only the actor of his own ideal.

98
If we train our conscience, it kisses us while it hurts us.

106
In music the passions enjoy themselves.

120
Sensuality often hastens the growth of love so much that the roots remain weak and are easily torn up.

125
When we have to change our mind about a person, we hold the inconvenience he causes us very much against him.

141
The abdomen is the reason why man does not easily take himself for a god.

161
Poets treat their experiences shamelessly: they exploit them.

166
Even when the mouth lies, the way it looks still tells the truth.

170
Praise is more obtrusive than a reproach.

* * * *
Related Links
Notes from a Lecture on Nietzsche
Nietzsche's Concept of Eternal Recurrence

* Extracts from Beyond Good & Evil

Throwback Thursday: Rediscovering Tragic Film

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 24 MARCH 2011

One of German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche's early works was called The Birth of Tragedy. Taking his cues from classical Greek tragedy, he presented modern (19th century) readers with the idea that tragedy is "an art form that transcends the pessimism and nihilism of a fundamentally meaningless world."* Spectators, by looking deeply into the depths of human sorrow, were affirmed in their own existence, and thus could see themselves not simply as petty peons in a pointless existence but as fuller, more complex persons.

 

Many there are who misunderstand tragedy in the arts. Hence the films we entertain ourselves with often tend to have tidy upbeat endings, such as the Hollywood version of The Natural, which produces a heroic end rather than the tragic one played out in the book.

This conflict regarding how to end films in Hollywood is a comical undercurrent in The Player, with Tim Robbins (1992). So it is that an analysis of the top 250 films of all time in most lists will reveal that tragic stories are a small minority.

Last night in a periodical called The City I read a fascinating essay by Paul D. Miller called Rediscovering Tragic Film, dealing with the films of Christopher Nolan. Nolan's name is no doubt familiar to movie buffs because he seems to be really connecting with the films he's been cranking out, most recently Inception starring Leonardo DiCaprio. It was probably Memento that first caught the public's attention, and a string of hits have followed including Batman Begins, The Prestige, The Dark Night. Miller notes that five of Nolan's six big films are are built around the elements of tragedy, yet the sum total of these films has generated 2.5 billion dollars in revenue, no small potatoes.

Miller writes, "A tragic plot is especially effective if it incorporates four elements: necessity, surprise, reversal, and recognition. Aristotle argues that the plot must proceed along a necessary chain of cause and effect, not by chance or randomness. 'The effect is heightened when, at the same time, [the outcome] follows as cause and effect,' because the tragic conclusion could not have been otherwise. A terrible but random event -- say, an earthquake -- inspires pity but also detachment, while a terrible event resulting from human choices and happenings that followed necessarily from them are terrifying because we can see how it could happen to us."

So it is that Chinatown, a Roman Polanski masterpiece, (spoiler here if you have not seen this movie) captivates us with its surprises, reversals and the plodding inevitability of its tragic end. Jack Nicholson sees it all coming, sees his part in the destruction and tragically sees, in retrospect, how it all happened.

According to Dr. Miller, Nolan's successes as a director and screenwriter reveal a thirst amongst movie-goers for real stories. "Real stories," he writes, "are ones that reflect true things about life, human nature, and the world we live in. Most films depict cardboard caricatures, not human beings, and take place in a fantasy world where good always triumphs. That Nolan's films make money and win praise shows that movie-goers sense something true in them."

I found Miller's essay satisfying and thought provoking. You will find more of Dr. Miller's film reviews here.  

The City is a publication of Houston Baptist University.

*Wikipedia

Nietzsche's Split with Wagner Over His Embrace of Decadence

"The history of any nation follows an undulatory course. In the trough of the wave we find more or less complete anarchy; but the crest is not more or less complete Utopia, but only, at best, a tolerably humane, partially free and fairly just society that invariably carries within itself the seeds of its own decadence."
--Aldous Huxley

"Men first feel necessity, then look for utility, next attend to comfort, still later amuse themselves with pleasure, thence grow dissolute in luxury, and finally go mad and waste their substance."
--Giambattista Vico

decadence: moral or cultural decline as characterized by excessive indulgence in pleasure or luxury. --Oxford Languages dictionary

 

* * * 

Preface to Friedrich Nietzsche's The Case of Wagner: "Nothing has preoccupied me more profoundly than the problem of decadence. Good and evil is merely a variation of that problem. Once one has developed a keen eye for the symptoms of decline, one understands morality, too-- one understands what is hiding under his most sacred names in value formulas: impoverished life, the will to the end, the great weariness."

Nietzsche describes his “profound estrangement“ with Wagner as a “sobering up.“ 

* * *

Today is Super Bowl Sunday. Is the Super Bowl the epitome of American Decadence? Of Bread and Circuses? 10 of the top 11 shows in television history have been Super Bowls.

Perhaps such circuses can be considered good and useful as they temporarily take a poor man's mind off his poverty? 

Earlier in Nietzsche's life he praised Wagner effusively. At the time, Wagner was a suffering artist, ever struggling to keep creditors at bay while producing sensational art. All that changed when he became the water boy for "Mad" King Ludwig II of Bavaria, a.k.a. The Swan King. Wagner was "in" the moneyed classes now. He had achieved. And he forgot his roots. (Nietzsche was also disgusted by Wagner's unconcealed anti-Semitism.) 

* * * 

Perhaps our love of football is a love of artifice. What could be more spectacular and more meaningless than a Super Bowl Halftime Show? The most memorable events can cost $10 million to produce. Here today, gone tomorrow. 

Long before feet touch the artificial turf, the primary actors have become grand in stature due to the celebrity machinery that turns mortals into gods. 

I'm curious what archeologists 1000 years from now will be thinking when they study our stadiums. The conversation will go like this. First: "What do you think these people did here?" Second: "We believe they gathered here to worship." 

* * * 

Will I be watching the game? Yes. I will be finishing my taxes and possibly taking notes on the commercials. $5.2 million per 30-second spot. 

Will Tom Brady acquire his 7th ring? 

Place your bets.

Matthew Kluber @ Joesph Nease Gallery: SFX

Our June Downtown Duluth Art Crawl was once again rewarding, as noted here yesterday. Here are snapshots of the Matthew Kluber exhibition at Joseph Nease Gallery. Titled Friday, I'm In Love, Kluber's work is a continuation of his optical explorations and work with projectors.

It's interesting that the elevation of art as something significant is nothing new. Here are some comments from ancient philosophers, followed by a handful of more recent statements and observations about the arts.

It is not strength, but art, obtains the prize,
And to be swift is less than to be wise.
'Tis more by art, than force of numerous strokes.
--Homer

Ars longa, vita brevis est.
--Hippocrates

Painters and poets have equal license in regard to everything.
--Horace

More recent philosophers recognize the importance of art as well.

"I dream my painting, and then I paint my dream."
--Vincent Van Gogh

"A genuine work of art must mean many things; the truer its art, the more things it will mean."
--George MacDonald 

"Art is the supreme task and the truly metaphysical activity in this life… "
--Friedrich Nietzsche,

* * * * 

Any harm in inserting a selfie here?

Artists getting into it.... L to R: Kathryn Lenz, Kathy McTavish, Bruce Peckham,
Matthew Kluber and Dawn Kluber.

* * * *

Gallery manager Amanda Hunter shows Dale Lucas (Studio 101) some of the
work from previous shows.

* * * *

At the end of the day, art doesn't need to be explained. It needs to be experienced.

--L. E. Newman

I Think, Therefore I Am… Or Am I? Nietzsche Strikes Again

The past couple weeks I’ve been accompanied by Nietzsche’s Beyond Good & Evil (audiobook) while commuting here and there. Nietzsche is probably one of the most maligned philosophers in history, pigeonholed as either a kook or as the author of the provocative “God is dead” proclamation.

The reality is that the feisty German was an astute observer with quite the sense of humor at times. He loved his mustache, for example, which he gleefully wore like a mask. He also got a kick out of kicking over sacred cows. At least that’s been my take.

In one place he takes aim at Descartes, who after a lengthy attempt to determine whether he existed or not concluded, “I think, therefore, I am.” The declaration, Nietzsche explains, rests on a questionable foundation. That is, do we really think? By way of illustration he notes how thoughts frequently pop into his head out of nowhere. Where do these thoughts come from? Is that really thinking?

It made me think of Martin Luther’s response to a person whose mind is being pestered by evil thoughts. Luther said, “You can’t stop a bird from landing on your head, but you can keep it from building a nest there.”

In other words, in that scenario our thoughts (often) come flitting in from elsewhere like birds or, more annoyingly, mosquitoes.

And yet, my brain is working as I work out how to construct this series of statements to make a point of sorts. To what degree am I thinking and to what degree are associations being assembled by my subconscious or unconscious, thus bypassing real thinking? I dunno. I suppose it’s something to think about.

* * * *
10 Nietzsche Epigrams and Interludes*

Some pointed, some pithy, some that make people apoplectic--Nietzsche was famous for his epigrams and aphorisms. 

73a
Many a peacock hides his peacock tail from all eyes--and calls that his pride.

97
What? A great man? I always see only the actor of his own ideal.

98
If we train our conscience, it kisses us while it hurts us.

106
In music the passions enjoy themselves.

120
Sensuality often hastens the growth of love so much that the roots remain weak and are easily torn up.

125
When we have to change our mind about a person, we hold the inconvenience he causes us very much against him.

141
The abdomen is the reason why man does not easily take himself for a god.

161
Poets treat their experiences shamelessly: they exploit them.

166
Even when the mouth lies, the way it looks still tells the truth.

170
Praise is more obtrusive than a reproach.

* * * *
Related Links
Notes from a Lecture on Nietzsche
Nietzsche's Concept of Eternal Recurrence

* Extracts from Beyond Good & Evil

Dylan's Scripture-Soaked Precious Angel: Strength In Weakness

Tonight's theme on KUMD's Highway 61 Revisited radio hour, hosted for 26 years be the über-dedicated John Bushey, featured cuts from the recently released Trouble No More, Volume 13 in Bob Dylan's Bootleg Series. The theme served as a trigger to write about one of my favorite songs from that period, Precious Angel.

There are three points I'd like to draw attention to here. First, the conflict between two conflicting definitions of strength. Second, a question regarding the purported plagiarism claims of his later work. And finally, the passion that he channels when performing.

* * * *
1. Friedrich Nietzsche appeared at a major turning point in history. The modern scientific age was dawning, religion no longer a necessary crutch to help us get through the wheel of suffering known as life. The Darwinian thesis that only the strong survive began seeping into a variety of channels, including the curiously heartless 20th century concept of eugenics in which the State helps in the disposal of the unfit and the weak.

Nietzsche wrote of the Übermensch, the Superman, who would cast off the shackles of the herd mentality found in religion and forge his own way through self-mastery. This secular concept of strength worked its way into the modern mind via a variety of channels, most notably Hemingway's fascination with bullfighters, Camus' existential heroes and secular humanism.

In contrast, we hear the chorus of Precious Angel, in which Dylan cries out from the depths, "I just can't make it by myself, I'm a little too blind to see." This acknowledgement of helplessness is central to a Christian worldview that makes no apologies about being dependent on the "higher power." As the Apostle Paul wrote in his second letter to the Corinthians, God's power is made perfect through weakness. In the chorus of Precious Angel, it's clear the Dylan "gets it."

* * * *
2. There were many critics who made a stink about Dylan's plagiarism in Love and Theft and Modern Times. Dylan "borrowed" from literature and the like without purportedly giving "credit where credit was due." Historically, however, haven't writers and artists been extracting text and concepts from the Bible for ages without necessarily providing chapter and verse? That is, to some extent, there is a measure of cultural literacy involved here? The habit of borrowing lines here and there and putting them into the Dylan mind-blender didn't begin in the 21st century.

* * * *

3. One of the notable features of Precious Angel, especially the studio recording that appears on Slow Train Coming, is the passion Dylan delivers. Looking backward, you hear it in the chorus of "Where Are You Tonight?" (Street Legal) all the way back to when a teen Dylan was unplugged by his principal while performing at Hibbing High School. His ability to channel emotion of all varieties has been a notable feature of his career as an artist. During his "Gospel period" he certainly projects an earnestness that was persuasive to his Christian followers, even if off-putting to many of his other fans. (Listen as he belts out "Solid Rock.")

* * * *
I've highlighted links to a few of the Scripture verses referenced here, not including the concepts of being blind and having one's eyes opened, or walking in the light.

* * * *
Precious Angel

Precious angel, under the sun

How was I to know you’d be the one

To show me I was blinded, to show me I was gone
How weak was the foundation I was standing upon? 

Now there’s spiritual warfare, flesh and blood breaking down
Ya either got faith or ya got unbelief, there ain’t no neutral ground
The enemy is subtle, how be it we are so deceived*
When the truth’s in our hearts and we still don’t believe?

Shine your light, shine your light on me
Shine your light, shine your light on me
Shine your light, shine your light on me
Ya know I just couldn’t make it by myself
I’m a little too blind to see

My so-called friends have fallen under a spell
They look me squarely in the eye and they say, “All is well”
Can they imagine the darkness that will fall from on high
When men will beg God to kill them and they won’t be able to die?

Sister, lemme tell you about a vision I saw
You were drawing water for your husband, you were suffering under the law
You were telling him about Buddha, you were telling him about Mohammed
in the same breath
You never mentioned one time the Man who came and died a criminal’s death 

Shine your light, shine your light on me
Shine your light, shine your light on me
Shine your light, shine your light on me
Ya know I just couldn’t make it by myself
I’m a little too blind to see

Precious angel, you believe me when I say
What God has given to us no man can take away  (John 10:29) (Mark 10:9)
We are covered in blood, girl, you know our forefathers were slaves** 
Let us hope they’ve found mercy in their bone-filled graves

You’re the queen of my flesh, girl, you’re my woman, you’re my delight
You’re the lamp of my soul, girl, and you torch up the night
But there’s violence in the eyes, girl, so let us not be enticed
On the way out of Egypt, through Ethiopia, to the judgment hall of Christ ***

Shine your light, shine your light on me
Shine your light, shine your light on me
Shine your light, shine your light on me
Ya know I just couldn’t make it by myself
I’m a little too blind to see

Copyright © 1979 by Special Rider Music

* * * *

Is religion the opiate of the masses, as Marx declared? Or is it a last bastion for hope in a world gone wrong?

* see also: Luke 4, and The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis.
** Origins of the Blood Covenant: Genesis 15:9-21
*** From Exodus thru to Revelations

For further reading see Bob Dylan: A Spiritual Life by Scott Marshall

Dylan's Man in the Long Black Coat

Throughout his career Dylan's been something of a man of mystery. And it seems like no matter what he does or says or doesn't do, someone is commenting on it.

While listening to Oh Mercy recently a line near the end of Dylan's "Man in the Long Black Coat" caught my attention: "Somebody is out there beating a dead horse."

Many of Dylan's songs contain strange imagery and some people have spent a lifetime analyzing his lyrics to gain access to the secret meanings in the songs, much like ancient mystics who used numerology to decode Judaism's sacred texts. In Desolation Row it's the last verse that offers up a key to unlocking the song, but how does one unlock All Along the Watchtower?

Knowing all this made me wonder if there were something more significant here than an arbitrary bizarre image that serves simply to make a rhyme. I thought it worth further investigation.

* * * *

The song begins with an ominous ambiance created by sparse bass and en electronic effect that sounds like crickets chirping. It feels dark, like the edge of dusk at the rim of nowhere. The effect appears designed to correspond with the song's opening line.

Crickets are chirpin’, the water is high
There’s a soft cotton dress on the line hangin’ dry
Window wide open, African trees
Bent over backwards from a hurricane breeze
Not a word of goodbye, not even a note
She gone with the man
In the long black coat

So we have an unidentified narrator telling a story, and thus far there are two characters, "she" and the man in the long black coat.  It has the feel of an old Western, the small house on the edge of a wilderness. The second verse offers clues regarding this stranger.

Somebody seen him hanging around
At the old dance hall on the outskirts of town
He looked into her eyes when she stopped him to ask
If he wanted to dance, he had a face like a mask
Somebody said from the Bible he’d quote
There was dust on the man
In the long black coat

Here's this man who no one seems to know and he's hanging out at the old dance hall. She's there, too, and she takes the initiative.

The town has a church, and the preacher there once gave a message that went like this:

Preacher was a talkin’, there’s a sermon he gave
He said every man’s conscience is vile and depraved
You cannot depend on it to be your guide
When it’s you who must keep it satisfied

This is not the popular view today, though. I remember a discussion four decades ago which began with this question. I was asked, "If the heart were a checkerboard, is it basically white splattered with black, or black splattered with white? That is, are we good underneath or bad underneath?" The young woman who asked this had just completed a philosophy class on Plato and was attempting to sort out some of the concepts. I'm not sure how I replied other than to make some kind of know-it-all statements which she proceeded to refute. I was so much older then....

It ain’t easy to swallow, it sticks in the throat
She gave her heart to the man
In the long black coat

What's not easy to swallow? The message from the preacher, or the fact that she gave her heart to the man in the long black coat? Perhaps it's both. Dylan once again is the master of ambiguity.

Before moving to the last verse there's a bridge offering another way of seeing things followed by the narrator's response. In a world with worldviews in conflict we can try to get along, but we don't have to all agree.

There are no mistakes in life some people say
It is true sometimes you can see it that way
But people don't live or die, people just float

She went with the man
In the long black coat

What's going on in this song? Clearly it's a lament. Everything is drenched with it. She left town with the man in a long black coat and she left somewhat suddenly. Her dress is still hanging on the line. She's never come back and no one ever heard from her again.

There’s smoke on the water, it’s been there since June
Tree trunks uprooted, 'neath the high crescent moon
Feel the pulse and vibration and the rumbling force
Somebody is out there beating a dead horse
She never said nothing, there was nothing she wrote
She gone with the man
In the long black coat

Copyright © 1989 by Special Rider Music

Does the line "Somebody is out there beating a dead horse" offer a clue here or is Dylan stringing things together to amplify the feeling of mystery while looking for a rhyme? (As some people say.) The expression "beating a dead horse" means, to bring up an issue that has already been concluded; something that's considered to be pointless.

If an argument erupts and it's one that has been previously settled, then the idiom "beating a dead horse" might be said by someone who sees any further discussion on the topic to be futile. "Come on, man, you're beating a dead horse."

The spot in Turin where Nietzche collapsed.

For some reason the image that came to mind for me was that of Nietzsche's nervous breakdown while staying in Turin, Italy. Whatever internal torments he had had bottled up burst like a dam when he witnessed a man beating his horse after it had collapsed in the street while pulling his carriage. Nietzsche purportedly ran over and embraced the horse, whose suffering was more than he could bear. After this breakdown he spent the last ten years of his life in a Basel asylum.

In the opening line of the last verse, smoke on the water just happens to be the title of a Deep Purple song which is itself about a tragedy, the fire in the Casino Montreux in Switzerland in 1971. The scene described in this verse includes uprooted tree trunks, the aftermath of that hurricane force wind that blew through, altering the landscape of our narrator's life.

Perhaps when all is said and done the narrator's despair is tied to his inaction. He watched passively, stood at a distance. Had she been waiting for him to step forward? For how long. Instead he remained paralyzed within himself. She finally took an action of her own. She initiated a relationship with her ticket out of town, the man in the long black coat.

The song is gloomy. And sometimes life can be, too. 

Nietzsche's Concept of Eternal Recurrence

"This life as you now live it and have lived it, you will have to live once more and innumerable times more; and there will be nothing new in it, but every pain and every joy and every thought and sigh and everything immeasurably small or great in your life must return to you-all in the same succession and sequence-even this spider and this moonlight between the trees, and even this moment and I myself. The eternal hourglass of existence is turned over and over, and you with it, a grain of dust." ~Friedrich Nietzsche

“Do you remember what you told me once? That every passing minute is another chance to turn it all around.” ~ Tom Cruise as David Aames, Vanilla Sky

Some people consider Friedrich Nietzsche one of the most exciting philosophers of all time. Certainly his ideas have been influential and his writing dramatic. And whatever your take on his point of view, the themes he addresses are provoking enough to give us something to gnaw on and make us think. And in the end, to some extent, maybe that was all he intended in a world where people generally just went about their business and accepted the values of the culture they were immersed in.

The quote above addresses one of his original constructs, the idea of life being an eternal recurrence. Christian teaching is not alone in giving weight to the decisions of this life by indicating their significance with regard to eternal outcomes. Nietzsche, on the other hand, chooses to suggest our decisions in this life have weight because how we choose to live today will be replayed over and over again unto eternity.

It’s a very unusual perspective in some respects, a variant on reincarnation, which also has us returning indefinitely, but in differing capacities. Scholars have argued whether the idea is meant as a serious conjecture or a concept to make us more thoughtful about our behavior here and now.

I would suggest that Nietzsche’s sole intent with this concept of eternal recurrence was to get us plugged in to the significance of our acts. His was a brilliant mind, but as far as I am aware he does not offer a supporting argument for the notion proposed. It is a certainty that he understood that even if we ourselves were recurring, our circumstances would not be, for times change, culture changes, history is unfolding all around us.

This theme of eternal recurrence is echoed in Cameron Crowe’s film Vanilla Sky. Once one grasps the film’s premise, the viewer is like Theseus following Ariadne’s thread to find his way through the labyrinth. In the film, David Aames is unaware that he is experiencing this “eternal recurrence”, but only knows that something is terribly wrong. The climactic scene on the rooftop brings a number of historically significant philosophical questions to the surface.

Of Nietzsche, we know that his ideas went on to influence innumerable existential philosophers and lay the groundwork for postmodern explorers. He lived passionately, a philosopher whose roots were less grounded in reason (the dominant theme of the Rennaissance and modern rationalism) and drawn more from the Dionysian, the experiential and the irrational.

While living in Italy, Nietzsche had a nervous breakdown while witnessing a man beating a horse. Embracing the horse, whose suffering was more than he could bear, Nietzsche fell apart and spent the last ten years of his life in a broken state.

Nietzsche’s writings are challenging to put your mind around in part because he did not believe it necessary to have a systematic, rational viewpoint. More than once he declares his distrust of systematizers. In this regard he may have foreshadowed the postmodernists who do not find it necessary to be altogether consistent in their own views. He may have even suggested that atttempts to be consistent are a waste of time.

What matters, he asserted, is not getting everything figured out, but experiencing our lives as fully as possible and becoming all we’re meant to be. “The present moment is all, so let us make the best use of it and of ourselves.” With that I would agree; the truth is true wherever it is found.

The two photos on this page are of the house where Nietzche lived in Turin, at via Carlo Albierto 6, when he had his nervous breakdown and of the plaque stating that Nietzsche lived there. In 1861Turin was the first capital of united Italy. The capital later moved to Florence and ultimately to Rome.


THIS BLOG POST IS A REPRINT OF SEPTEMBER 30, 2009.

Rediscovering Tragic Film

One of German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche's early works was called The Birth of Tragedy. Taking his cues from classical Greek tragedy, he presented modern (19th century) readers with the idea that tragedy is "an art form that transcends the pessimism and nihilism of a fundamentally meaningless world."* Spectators, by looking deeply into the depths of human sorrow, were affirmed in their own existence, and thus could see themselves not simply as petty peons in a pointless existence but as fuller, more complex persons.

Many there are who misunderstand tragedy in the arts. Hence the films we entertain ourselves with often tend to have tidy upbeat endings, such as the Hollywood version of The Natural, which produces a heroic end rather than the tragic one played out in the book.

This conflict regarding how to end films in Hollywood is a comical undercurrent in The Player, with Tim Robbins (1992). So it is that an analysis of the top 250 films of all time in most lists will reveal that tragic stories are a small minority.

Last night in a periodical called The City I read a fascinating essay by Paul D. Miller called Rediscovering Tragic Film, dealing with the films of Christopher Nolan. Nolan's name is no doubt familiar to movie buffs because he seems to be really connecting with the films he's been cranking out, most recently Inception starring Leonardo DiCaprio. It was probably Memento that first caught the public's attention, and a string of hits have followed including Batman Begins, The Prestige, The Dark Night. Miller notes that five of Nolan's six big films are are built around the elements of tragedy, yet the sum total of these films has generated 2.5 billion dollars in revenue, no small potatoes.

Miller writes, "A tragic plot is especially effective if it incorporates four elements: necessity, surprise, reversal, and recognition. Aristotle argues that the plot must proceed along a necessary chain of cause and effect, not by chance or randomness. 'The effect is heightened when, at the same time, [the outcome] follows as cause and effect,' because the tragic conclusion could not have been otherwise. A terrible but random event -- say, an earthquake -- inspires pity but also detachment, while a terrible event resulting from human choices and happenings that followed necessarily from them are terrifying because we can see how it could happen to us."

So it is that Chinatown, a Roman Polanski masterpiece, (spoiler here if you have not seen this movie) captivates us with its surprises, reversals and the plodding inevitability of its tragic end. Jack Nicholson sees it all coming, sees his part in the destruction and sees, in retrospect, how it all happened.

According to Dr. Miller, Nolan's successes as a director and screenwriter reveal a thirst amongst movie-goers for real stories. "Real stories," he writes, "are ones that reflect true things about life, human nature, and the world we live in. Most films depict cardboard charicatures, not human beings, and take place in a fantasy world where good always triumphs. That Nolan's films make money and win praise shows that movie-goers sense something true in them."

Though I was unable to find this essay onling at the moment, a Google search can lead you to more of Dr. Miller's work. This essay was satisfying and thought provoking.

The City is a publication of Houston Baptist University.

*Wikipedia