Der Wille zur Macht

Been thinking more about "will to power".

Nietzche utterly rejected Schopenhauer's proposition of a "will to live" in deference to a basic "will to power". The will to live dictates that every creature has, as its primary drive, a will to sustain their own lives. The will to power insists that all creatures are driven by more than a drive to merely sustain their lives. The will to power states that creatures are driven by a need to wield and use power, to dominate others, and to make them weaker.

I like to assume the best of everyone. Not out of naivete but rather optimism. And as individuals are concerned, I tarry in my optimism. Institutions are another story. If ever the Nietzchian will to power was manifest, it is in the modern institution.

When corporations consider the inurement of shareholders [investors] at the expense of its stakeholders [employees];
When churches vilify one sin [adultery] and sanctify another [greed];
When a government pursues justice for one human-rights violation [Iraq] and turns a blind eye toward another [Sudan];

Well, I can't call that anything other than evil. In all cases, the institutions are protecting one group at the expense of another. How can we call ourselves humans when humanity is the very thing that we are destroying. The answer to accusations like this is, "We can't help everyone." The plaint will ring through history, echoing Oskar Schindler, "If I could have just done a little more..."

Speaking of Schindler, there is a line from the movie delivered by Ben Kingsley playing Itzhak Stern who says,

"This list... is an absolute good. The list is life. All around its margins lies the gulf."

I speak for myself when I say that I am weary of living in the gulf that surrounds that bleak little outpost called "Hope". I look onto it day by day not for a hope that my lot will be improved but that I may begin to see the downcast lifted, even a little.

I think I am becoming darker by the day...

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