"Nietzsche and The Human Animal: The Domesticated and The Strong"

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I call an animal a species an individual

corrupt when it loses its instincts when

it chooses when it prefers what is

harmful to it throughout much of history

humans have perceived themselves as

superior to all other creatures myths of

our divine origin and our place of the

crown of creation are found in religions

reaching back thousands of years

even in our scientifically enlightened

the times this conviction of our species

supremacy has not been shaken for now we

are masters of the earth the pinnacle of

evolution the only rational and moral

species in a world of unconscious

creatures red in tooth and claw but not

all have agreed with this sentiment some

in fact have viewed mankind in a very

different light the philosopher

Friedrich Nietzsche for example believed

that if you looked at deeply into the

human psyche you would discover that

beneath our vanity in the masks we

display we are the only animal severed

from our instincts in hence the sickest

species ever to have walked this earth

we have learned better we have become

more modest in every respect

we no longer trace the origin of the

human being in spirit in the divinity we

have placed it back among the animals

and even in asserting that we assert too

much

the human being is relatively speaking

the most abundant of all the animals the

sickly astrayed from its instincts but

for all that he is of course the most

interesting

how did we the most cunning of all

creatures become the suffering animal

par excellence to answer this question

Nietzsche's mind was drawn back many

thousands of years to a time when our

species civilized disposition had yet to

develop in these prehistorical ages

humans were primarily driven by their

instincts they were according to

Nietzsche half animals that were well

adapted to wilderness war prowling

adventure a dramatic transformation in

the psyche of these half animals

occurred when they moved from the

wilderness into civilization within

these confines of society and peace

humans found themselves for the first

time subject to laws and customs backed

by the threat of punishment and hence no

longer ruled by instincts alone these

social standards conditioned us into a

more civilised existence but they also

weakened us and intensified our

suffering for in being suppressed and

forced underground our animal instincts

did not disappear rather they turned

themselves backwards against man himself

they produced a sickness in the psyche

Nietzsche called the bad conscience a

will to self torment thus marking the

beginning of that dreadful human

tendency to inflict pain upon oneself as

Nietzsche explained the man who was

forced into an oppressive narrowness

and regularity of custom impatiently

tore himself apart persecuted himself

not away at himself grew upset and did

himself damage with him was introduced

the greatest and weirdest illness from

which human beings today have not

recovered the suffering of man from his

own nature from himself a consequence of

the forcible separation from his animal

past a declaration of war against the

old instincts on which up to that point

his power joy and ability to inspire

fear had been based

within the closed walls of civilization

a bad conscience is not all that ails us

rather as Nietzsche explained with the

aid of the morality of mores and the

social straightjacket man was actually

made calculable fear of the law and

punishment were the tools of

domestication which weakened our

connection to our instincts and made our

behavior more predictable safe and

herd-like the meaning of all culture

wrote Nietzsche is the reduction of the

beast of prey man to a tame and

civilized animal a domestic animal while

this process of domestication was

necessary for the creation of

civilization it came at the cost of

transforming the human being from a

strong innocent and free animal into a

guilt-ridden manipulable and tame

creature dependent on a shepherd to lead

him to call the taming of an animal its

improvement is in our ears almost a joke

whoever knows what goes on in menagerie

is doubtful whether the beasts in them

are improved

they are weakened they are made less

harmful they become sickly beasts

through the depressive emotion of fear

through pain through injuries through

hunger it is no different with the tamed

human being as a result of this

millennia long process of the taming and

weakening of our instincts we have

become too reliant on our consciousness

according to meetcha our weakest and

most fallible organ we have developed

into a ruminating animal who died sex

every detail to a degree that can foster

perpetual doubt and cynicism of life but

even worse this trend has divorced us

from our old leaders the ruling

unconscious drives which guided our

ancestors safely for hundreds of

thousands of years amidst the terrors

and dangers of nature he has lost and

destroyed his instinct and can no longer

trust the divine animal and let go the

reins when his understanding falters and

his way leads through deserts

Nietzsche urged his readers to diminish

their reliance on consciousness and to

reconnect with their old and friendly

unconscious guides for when the great

pains of life make an appearance often

it is these ancient instincts alone

which can provide the strength and

wisdom needed to persist

there comes for every man an hour in

which he asks himself in wonderment how

is one able to live and yet one does

live an hour in which he begins to

understand that he possesses an

inventiveness of the same kind as he

admires in plants which climb and wind

and finally gain some light and a patch

of soil and thus create for themselves

their share of joy on inhospitable

ground yet Nietzsche realized that a

danger accompanies those of us who

attempt to revive these old leaders for

in the process we may unintentionally

unleash our vicious and primitive

passions in other words in repairing our

severance from our instincts we must be

ready to confront the Beast within you

aspire to free Heights your soul thirsts

for the stars but your wicked instincts

to thirst for freedom your wild dogs

want freedom they bark with joy in their

cellar when your spirit plans to open

all prisons

to help us manage our primal nature

meetcha looked to the ancient Greeks the

models of all future cultured nations

rather than denying their instincts

the Greeks accepted them in devoted

festivals to all the passions and evil

inclinations the function of these

festivals was to serve as culturally

sanctioned mechanisms to help the Greeks

transform their primal passions into

productive cultural forces and vehicles

of creation and a life affirmation but

in the modern world we lack any societal

devices of this type and therefore

Nietzsche urged his readers to create

their own festivals in celebration of

the primordial passions so as to promote

their modification into more fertile and

spiritual forms once you had fierce dogs

in your cellar but they changed at last

into birds and sweet singers whereas he

elaborated in an unpublished note in

order to be able to create we must give

ourselves greater freedom than has been

given us before at the same time

liberation from morality and relief

through festivals premonitions of the

future celebrate the future not the past

composed the myth of the future live in

Hope blissful moments and then cover up

the curtain again and turn our thoughts

to fixed close goals

Nietzsche was so adamant on reconnecting

to our animal instincts because he

realized that we can never rid ourselves

of these fundamental elements of our

being we either recognize them and

harness them for use in a constructive

and creative manner or we deny them and

force them underground

but this latter tactic divorces us from

our old leaders turns our instincts

against ourselves and breeds a bad

conscience and perpetuates our herd-like

behavior in dependence on a Shepherd to

show us the way society tames the wolf

into a dog and man is the most

domesticated animal of all in his book

human all too human nietzsche used the

ancient Greek myth of Kirika as the

symbol for this return to the animal

foundations for just as the potions of

the goddess Kirika had the power of

transforming the human into an animal so

to Nietzsche thought honesty regarding

our nature and origin can help us

restore our connection to our instincts

put an end to our domestically and

provide us with the wisdom and willpower

to create new cultural values that serve

as the foundation for the rise of

unprejudiced independent and

self-reliant men the real pillars of a

strong civilization whereas he wrote

truth as Kirika error has turned animals

into men might the truth be capable of

turning man into an animal again

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