We live in a time of fast pace life, we are always busy running around. We rarely have time to stop and relax. According to Judaism, Jews have a day of Sabbath. Sabbath is the day of rest; a day of relaxation to appreciate God’s creations and relationship (Hopfe & Woodward 2009). I believe that it is very important to have a day of Sabbath. As humans we are always trying to advance ourselves; trying to get the newest and fastest cell phones and other technologies. In life the young generation is constantly keeping in touch through email or text message. Everything is quick and fast. I believe that this can have a negative effect on person so it is necessary to have a day of relaxation.
According to Religions of the World, Sabbath is the most important and distinctive of all Jewish holidays. The fact that it is the most important holiday shows the importance of relaxation. Orthodox Jews are supposed to stay away from driving cars, using money, smoking, or doing any kind of physical activity. This day is meant to stay away from the hectic life so a person is able to relax and go back to the work week in a relax mood (Hopfe & Woodward 2009).
I believe in day of relaxation because I notice when I stop and relax for a day what a big difference there is when I return back to my regular routine. I took nine credits of summer school courses this past summer. This was after I was taking eighteen credits in the fall and spring semester. By the end of summer I was exhausted, constantly studying and worried about the next assignment. I was worn out; I decided to take a small trip to Deep Creek Park in Maryland with my best friend. I turned off my cell phone, did not get on my laptop, nothing. We drove to the creek, rented a cabin and enjoyed the beautiful scenery. It felt amazing to not always be on the run. I was able to just relax and enjoy the scenery. I felt that because my mind was relaxing I was able to appreciate the beauty in God’s creations. I am aware that God’s creations are everywhere but I notice that because I am always so busy there are times that I don’t realize it. This mini trip into nature helped me realize how abundant God’s creations are.
I think in order to have a successful day of relaxation a person should appreciate the basic gifts of life. When a person realizes the gift in simplicity than I think it calms and relaxes a person. Along with noticing the beauty in nature I was able to appreciate my friendship. I had a good time with my friend. On our way back I made sure to call my parents. This trip made me appreciate the simple creations of nature. The trip reminded me to call my parents and just appreciate my relationship with my family because they are the ones that helped create me. The effect a few days of relaxation had on me was amazing. Once I returned from my trip I was much more productive and able to do better work because my mind and body had a few days of relaxation to enjoy the beauties of life.
In conclusion whether a person is a Jew, religious, or not religious a day of relaxation is necessary. This day of relaxation is almost like a person is resetting their clock, resetting to relax and recharge a person. This allows a person to do better when they return back to work or school.
Showing posts with label Sociology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sociology. Show all posts
Nov 22, 2011
Nov 21, 2011
The loss of the Creature
Walker Percy’s “The loss of the creature” is an exceedingly fascinating piece of work. Through the use of examples, Walker tries to stress the idea that any person with expectations will not be able to accept fully and learn from any experience. He reveals how most of the times people perceive in advance the result of an experience, but, in most cases, the experience falls short of our expectations. He further argues that, human beings can truly only lurch upon beautiful things and find them best when least expected. According to Percy, humans learn best to stand on their own only by the experiences life presents to them. These experiences, therefore, shape us as human beings and happen, only if we leave what he describes as the “beaten track.”
He also noted that the sudden sneak of beauty keeps us from the distractions of our everyday lives.
Walker demonstrates his points by describing several examples. Firstly, he presents an example of a family of tourists and their experience at the Grand Canyon. Here, he tries to show how most of the tourists having had preconceived information of the marvel are let down with a lackluster sight rather than the miraculous wonder they have dreamt about. The barrier between imagination and reality hinders the tourists’ view of the site directly. Walker argues that, the tourists can only see the beauty of the canyon if they drift away from the beaten track and see it from a unique perspective without precognitions.
In addition, Percy gives an example of a couple who got stuck while meandering and stumbled in a Mexican village. This couple never expected to meet the ethnologist, and upon meeting him, they decided to spend time with him, and ended up living the life of the locals. This turned out to be a better experience than their expectation. In another example, Percy explains how one student comes across a dead dogfish at the beach, and the other has a Shakespeare sonnet. Both students are uninformed of the factual experience they could go through, and the teacher might as well present the dogfish to the English student and the couplet to the biology student because they will be competent to investigate and discover more within the diverse settings, and without the surroundings and expectations.
In his article “The Loss of the Creature,” Percy made legitimate points. I agree with him, that, our expectations always fall short of our expectations. I also believe that the most beautiful of experiences are always those that are unanticipated. I believe, too, that, when we encounter any kind of experience in life, and we are forced to stand on our own, these situations shape us the most. I agree with all of Percy’s theories because I have actually had personal experiences that prove these very points.
Just like the tourists I happened to travel quite often during my high school years. Once, I had a trip to the Thompson falls. I expected to have a clear view of the fall but, on the contrary, the terrain was rugged, and the thick bushes were a hindrance to the site.
Percy’s “The Loss of the Creature” demonstrates how to mold our minds through the ways of surprise, growth, and going with the flow. I can connect his views of life with my very own life experiences.
David Wallace’s “In your own words”
“In His Own Words,” is an address by David Foster Wallace to graduates of the Kenyon College in 2005. David Foster Wallace is an eccentric speaker who tries to put forward to the reader and the Kenyon graduates that in actual sense thinking is not in actuality about the aptitude to think, but somewhat about the selection of what to think about. He does not use hard vocabularies to convey his message nor bit about the bush as most leaders do. Indeed, he stresses this point by using stories about tangible experiences that typical working people pass through in their day to day life.
Wallace takes his time in dissecting each of the didactic little stories that he uses as examples to explain his points on the intricate way the mind works. He also uses old clichés like “the mind being an excellent servant but a terrible master". These helps the reader to decipher the information the writer is trying to convey.
Wallace tries to explain the definition of true, authentic sovereignty. That is being well-informed, and comprehending how to think. The unconventional is, the default setting, which he defines as the continuous bothering sense of having had, and lost, some never-ending thing.
Wallace brings out the surprising fact that humans tend to think in a sort of natural, basic self-centeredness way because it’s a default setting, hard-wired into the human boards at birth. However, in order to teach the human mind to think he suggests that one should choose to carry out the work of somehow adjusting or getting gratis of their natural, hard-wired default setting which is profoundly and accurately self-absorbed and to see and deduce everything in the course of this lens of self. In this way, the human way of thinking will be less arrogant and ill have little critical awareness about self and self certainties.
I found David’s writing very persuasive, well explained and quite informative. He uses actual life experiences which enabled me easily visualize and understand the comparable way most humans think and why I fail to stay alert because of the constant monologue inside my head. I loved the descriptive language he used which contained simple adjectives but which were meticulously placed such that the final product was just flowing from the first to the last page.
Just like in his example, I have always found myself whenever am stuck in traffic or in a long queue at the cafeteria I easily fall into my natural default settings and only focus on myself that is; my ravenousness, my weariness, and my yearning to get home, and it always seems that the world like everybody else is just on my way. However, I have learnt from David to prefer to compel myself to reflect on the likelihood that everyone else in the cafeteria is just as jaded and aggravated as I am and that a few of these inhabitants possibly have harder, more dreary and excruciating lives than I do.
In conclusion, it is safe to believe that David Foster Wallace values making the right choice. He is of the belief that thinking is always alert, and not to fall in our natural default settings. He also values real education, and for him, this real education has all to do with effortless awareness; knowledge of what is so authentic and indispensable so concealed in plain view all around us and all the time.
He also noted that the sudden sneak of beauty keeps us from the distractions of our everyday lives.
Walker demonstrates his points by describing several examples. Firstly, he presents an example of a family of tourists and their experience at the Grand Canyon. Here, he tries to show how most of the tourists having had preconceived information of the marvel are let down with a lackluster sight rather than the miraculous wonder they have dreamt about. The barrier between imagination and reality hinders the tourists’ view of the site directly. Walker argues that, the tourists can only see the beauty of the canyon if they drift away from the beaten track and see it from a unique perspective without precognitions.
In addition, Percy gives an example of a couple who got stuck while meandering and stumbled in a Mexican village. This couple never expected to meet the ethnologist, and upon meeting him, they decided to spend time with him, and ended up living the life of the locals. This turned out to be a better experience than their expectation. In another example, Percy explains how one student comes across a dead dogfish at the beach, and the other has a Shakespeare sonnet. Both students are uninformed of the factual experience they could go through, and the teacher might as well present the dogfish to the English student and the couplet to the biology student because they will be competent to investigate and discover more within the diverse settings, and without the surroundings and expectations.
In his article “The Loss of the Creature,” Percy made legitimate points. I agree with him, that, our expectations always fall short of our expectations. I also believe that the most beautiful of experiences are always those that are unanticipated. I believe, too, that, when we encounter any kind of experience in life, and we are forced to stand on our own, these situations shape us the most. I agree with all of Percy’s theories because I have actually had personal experiences that prove these very points.
Just like the tourists I happened to travel quite often during my high school years. Once, I had a trip to the Thompson falls. I expected to have a clear view of the fall but, on the contrary, the terrain was rugged, and the thick bushes were a hindrance to the site.
Percy’s “The Loss of the Creature” demonstrates how to mold our minds through the ways of surprise, growth, and going with the flow. I can connect his views of life with my very own life experiences.
David Wallace’s “In your own words”
“In His Own Words,” is an address by David Foster Wallace to graduates of the Kenyon College in 2005. David Foster Wallace is an eccentric speaker who tries to put forward to the reader and the Kenyon graduates that in actual sense thinking is not in actuality about the aptitude to think, but somewhat about the selection of what to think about. He does not use hard vocabularies to convey his message nor bit about the bush as most leaders do. Indeed, he stresses this point by using stories about tangible experiences that typical working people pass through in their day to day life.
Wallace takes his time in dissecting each of the didactic little stories that he uses as examples to explain his points on the intricate way the mind works. He also uses old clichés like “the mind being an excellent servant but a terrible master". These helps the reader to decipher the information the writer is trying to convey.
Wallace tries to explain the definition of true, authentic sovereignty. That is being well-informed, and comprehending how to think. The unconventional is, the default setting, which he defines as the continuous bothering sense of having had, and lost, some never-ending thing.
Wallace brings out the surprising fact that humans tend to think in a sort of natural, basic self-centeredness way because it’s a default setting, hard-wired into the human boards at birth. However, in order to teach the human mind to think he suggests that one should choose to carry out the work of somehow adjusting or getting gratis of their natural, hard-wired default setting which is profoundly and accurately self-absorbed and to see and deduce everything in the course of this lens of self. In this way, the human way of thinking will be less arrogant and ill have little critical awareness about self and self certainties.
I found David’s writing very persuasive, well explained and quite informative. He uses actual life experiences which enabled me easily visualize and understand the comparable way most humans think and why I fail to stay alert because of the constant monologue inside my head. I loved the descriptive language he used which contained simple adjectives but which were meticulously placed such that the final product was just flowing from the first to the last page.
Just like in his example, I have always found myself whenever am stuck in traffic or in a long queue at the cafeteria I easily fall into my natural default settings and only focus on myself that is; my ravenousness, my weariness, and my yearning to get home, and it always seems that the world like everybody else is just on my way. However, I have learnt from David to prefer to compel myself to reflect on the likelihood that everyone else in the cafeteria is just as jaded and aggravated as I am and that a few of these inhabitants possibly have harder, more dreary and excruciating lives than I do.
In conclusion, it is safe to believe that David Foster Wallace values making the right choice. He is of the belief that thinking is always alert, and not to fall in our natural default settings. He also values real education, and for him, this real education has all to do with effortless awareness; knowledge of what is so authentic and indispensable so concealed in plain view all around us and all the time.
A Good Man Is Hard To Find
O’Connor Flannery’s short tale “is hard to find a good man” unfolds where unnamed grandmother complains that she would rather visit Tennesse for a holiday rather than Florida. Bailey the son to the old lady ignores her views and the family decides to visit Florida. O’Connor uses foreshadowing, imagery, smiles, situational and dramatic irony to communicate her ideas. The story depicts a cynical tale, vividly displaying out human manipulations and meanness. Closer examination of the story exhibits many outcomes such as comedy, horror, and how God uses man over his will. It is for a reason that, many readers of this story have different reactions towards O’Connor’s, real intended message.
Foreshadowing is a chief stylistic device used by O’Connor‘s to communicate her story “it is hard to find a good man.” When O’Connor‘s narrates her story, she uses several instances of foreshadowing to prepare the reader what might happen next. For example, in the start of the story, the grandmother forewarns Bailey, and she says “she can not take the children in the direction of a criminal who is on the loose (paragraph 1).” After her son refuses to hinder to her advice, she seeks support from the daughter in law. To emphasis her point she says “the children have been to Florida before but not in east Tennessee.” This advice is further ignored by the daughter in law by pretending that she is busy feeding the baby. Her grandchildren also do not take her side either, and they scorn her by telling her to stay at home if she does not wish to go to Florida (paragraph 4).
Another instance, where O’Connor‘s uses foreshadowing to foretell what could occur in the future, can be seen where the grandmother dresses immaculately to be noticed incase of an accident. The writer says “she could be identified as a lady easily incase of an accident on highway (paragraph 12).” The grandmother warns Bailey against overspending, and she starts to point at other amusing things on the highway. For instance, she points at five or six graves on the road side, ironically they are six of them in the car. This foreteller’s of a misfortune that is about to happen to them.
When the family decides to take a rest in a restaurant, the aged lady asks Red Sammy if he has heard about a criminal called Misfit. Red Sammy’s wife responds “she can not be taken by surprise if that criminal struck their restaurant any time (paragraph 41). This discussion presents and prepares the reader what might happen to the family as they proceed with their journey. To conclude their talk with the old lady, Sammy says “it is tough to get a good man, and everything is getting horrible (paragraph 43).
After the family leaves the restaurant and drives off, the writer gives a hint that the journey is almost to end in a wrong way. The author does this by noting that the family is approaching a town called Toomsboro (paragraph 81). Through the old woman’s canny tricks, she manages to convince the family to go and visit a nearby plantation that contains a secret panel. In their way, they encounter a road that is dusty, dirty and with dark forests as surrounding. The author uses this signs to refer to a misfortune that is in waiting. The car eventually gets an accident, but luckily no one gets hurt. After this accident, the old lady seeks assistance from a ‘black’ car, totally not knowing it is Misfit the criminal in it. The writer mentions a black car to signify evil in that car. This turns to be true when Misfit gets out of that car.
In this story “is hard to find a good man” O’Connor uses two types of ironies to pass her powerful message. These true ironies are situational and dramatic. In this story, the author employs dramatic irony in the sense that, the old lady views herself as a classic example of a southern lady; genteel, wise and upright. However, her actions reveal the other side of her. She lies, uses racist language, primps and foolishly identifies Misfit. She realizes that she is mistaken when the story takes a tragic turn. O’Connor uses situational irony in the story where the evil Misfit makes the old lady know what she is like (sinner). Her enlightenment makes her receive redemption as she dies smiling. This makes Misfit say “I am delighted that she has died a good woman now (paragraph 82).”
O’Connor uses simile to make every word in her story to have a contribution in the general effect of the whole story. For example, when describing the wife of Bailey, the writers say, “her face was as extensive and as blameless as a cabbage (Paragraph 2).” This simile portrays the Bailey wife as shy and guilelessness, this making her a prey to be easily manipulated by other members of the family. On the hand, this makes the reader think that, maybe she wanted the family to visit Tennesse and not Florida, but because of her naivety, she could not speak out her mind.
Lastly O’Connor uses imagery to bring out color and light. For example, the old lady dresses in best clothes to reflect her image (paragraph 1). To be specific, she puts on her white gloves, blue hat, navy blue dress and white organdy collar. The author uses this to present how the old woman views herself as a righteous and principled. Nature mimics her in number of ways. For instance, she points at “blue granite on the highway…brilliant red clay and green crops (paragraph 13). The use of imagery by the author helps the reader to realize the dark soul of the old lady.
O’Connor uses climax in her story “it is hard to find a good man” in several ways. In the first instance, where the author employs climax, is where the old lady recognizes Misfit as the driver of the black car. On (paragraph 82), she says, “You are Misfit.” This allows the reader imagine that the story is almost coming to an end. The second instance where O’Connor hints her climax of the story is where the old lady tries to reach and touch the Misfit. Misfit eventually fires at her three times, and she dies a smiling lady.
O’Connor uses foreshadowing as her main stylistic device; however, she uses other stylistic devices in a lesser scale. The short story “is hard to find a good man” opens with comic episodes and foretelling a tragic ending. This story is wonderful narration told in the third person point of analysis. The characters in this tale are round, flat and dynamic. This makes the reader, have a variety of imaginations of what the author intended to achieve.
Foreshadowing is a chief stylistic device used by O’Connor‘s to communicate her story “it is hard to find a good man.” When O’Connor‘s narrates her story, she uses several instances of foreshadowing to prepare the reader what might happen next. For example, in the start of the story, the grandmother forewarns Bailey, and she says “she can not take the children in the direction of a criminal who is on the loose (paragraph 1).” After her son refuses to hinder to her advice, she seeks support from the daughter in law. To emphasis her point she says “the children have been to Florida before but not in east Tennessee.” This advice is further ignored by the daughter in law by pretending that she is busy feeding the baby. Her grandchildren also do not take her side either, and they scorn her by telling her to stay at home if she does not wish to go to Florida (paragraph 4).
Another instance, where O’Connor‘s uses foreshadowing to foretell what could occur in the future, can be seen where the grandmother dresses immaculately to be noticed incase of an accident. The writer says “she could be identified as a lady easily incase of an accident on highway (paragraph 12).” The grandmother warns Bailey against overspending, and she starts to point at other amusing things on the highway. For instance, she points at five or six graves on the road side, ironically they are six of them in the car. This foreteller’s of a misfortune that is about to happen to them.
When the family decides to take a rest in a restaurant, the aged lady asks Red Sammy if he has heard about a criminal called Misfit. Red Sammy’s wife responds “she can not be taken by surprise if that criminal struck their restaurant any time (paragraph 41). This discussion presents and prepares the reader what might happen to the family as they proceed with their journey. To conclude their talk with the old lady, Sammy says “it is tough to get a good man, and everything is getting horrible (paragraph 43).
After the family leaves the restaurant and drives off, the writer gives a hint that the journey is almost to end in a wrong way. The author does this by noting that the family is approaching a town called Toomsboro (paragraph 81). Through the old woman’s canny tricks, she manages to convince the family to go and visit a nearby plantation that contains a secret panel. In their way, they encounter a road that is dusty, dirty and with dark forests as surrounding. The author uses this signs to refer to a misfortune that is in waiting. The car eventually gets an accident, but luckily no one gets hurt. After this accident, the old lady seeks assistance from a ‘black’ car, totally not knowing it is Misfit the criminal in it. The writer mentions a black car to signify evil in that car. This turns to be true when Misfit gets out of that car.
In this story “is hard to find a good man” O’Connor uses two types of ironies to pass her powerful message. These true ironies are situational and dramatic. In this story, the author employs dramatic irony in the sense that, the old lady views herself as a classic example of a southern lady; genteel, wise and upright. However, her actions reveal the other side of her. She lies, uses racist language, primps and foolishly identifies Misfit. She realizes that she is mistaken when the story takes a tragic turn. O’Connor uses situational irony in the story where the evil Misfit makes the old lady know what she is like (sinner). Her enlightenment makes her receive redemption as she dies smiling. This makes Misfit say “I am delighted that she has died a good woman now (paragraph 82).”
O’Connor uses simile to make every word in her story to have a contribution in the general effect of the whole story. For example, when describing the wife of Bailey, the writers say, “her face was as extensive and as blameless as a cabbage (Paragraph 2).” This simile portrays the Bailey wife as shy and guilelessness, this making her a prey to be easily manipulated by other members of the family. On the hand, this makes the reader think that, maybe she wanted the family to visit Tennesse and not Florida, but because of her naivety, she could not speak out her mind.
Lastly O’Connor uses imagery to bring out color and light. For example, the old lady dresses in best clothes to reflect her image (paragraph 1). To be specific, she puts on her white gloves, blue hat, navy blue dress and white organdy collar. The author uses this to present how the old woman views herself as a righteous and principled. Nature mimics her in number of ways. For instance, she points at “blue granite on the highway…brilliant red clay and green crops (paragraph 13). The use of imagery by the author helps the reader to realize the dark soul of the old lady.
O’Connor uses climax in her story “it is hard to find a good man” in several ways. In the first instance, where the author employs climax, is where the old lady recognizes Misfit as the driver of the black car. On (paragraph 82), she says, “You are Misfit.” This allows the reader imagine that the story is almost coming to an end. The second instance where O’Connor hints her climax of the story is where the old lady tries to reach and touch the Misfit. Misfit eventually fires at her three times, and she dies a smiling lady.
O’Connor uses foreshadowing as her main stylistic device; however, she uses other stylistic devices in a lesser scale. The short story “is hard to find a good man” opens with comic episodes and foretelling a tragic ending. This story is wonderful narration told in the third person point of analysis. The characters in this tale are round, flat and dynamic. This makes the reader, have a variety of imaginations of what the author intended to achieve.
The Misery of Civilization
Given the title, On the Genealogy of Morals, Nietzsche focuses his arguments on historical context and how things have come to being. This way of analysis is applied to how he assesses the impacts of civilization. He argues that the “real problem regarding man” is the “paradoxical task that nature has set itself in the case of man” to “breed [man] with the right to make promises” (Nietzsche 1967, 57), the fact that man is raised under the guidance of other men in civilization. In this context, breeding does not limit itself to the act of procreation, but to the act of raising man from his childhood and establishing his place within civilization.
Nietzsche argues that the consciousness of guilt, or the “bad consciousness” that is affirmed in the “slave morality” is essentially worthless due to its lack of historical instinct (62). He argues that the determining factors for what is essentially “bad” or deserving of punishment is related to the humanity that is accredited to civilization, “a high degree of humanity had to be attained before the animal ‘man’ began even to make the much more primitive distinctions between ‘intentional,’ ‘negligent,’ ‘accidental,’ ‘accountable,’ and their opposites and to take them into account when determining punishments” (62). The reasoning behind such appropriations of punishment is determined with the reasoning that the ‘criminal could have acted differently’ (63) rather than determined by the act itself. This essentially empowers that of the human consciousness, allowing this sort of logic to guide civilization to exert “mercy.”
Nietzsche goes on to argue that “The proud awareness of the extraordinary privilege of responsibility, the consciousness of this rare freedom, this power over oneself and over fate, has in his case penetrated to the profoundest depths and become instinct, the dominating instinct” (60). Consciousness is used as a mechanism to establish power and an individual or group’s domination over the rest of society. The consciousness that allocated power to certain parts of civilization is the same consciousness that established by what means a criminal should be punished. In turn, because the same consciousness worked in both these ways, one is able to witness “This self-overcoming of justice [those in power being unpunished for their crimes]… the beautiful name it has given itself—mercy; it goes without saying that mercy remains the privilege of the most powerful man, or better, his—beyond the law” (73). Through mercy and the establishment of the lack of intent on committing a deed, those in power are able to manipulate justice for their liking.
Through civilization, society is able to expand, contributing to the weakening of the individual and the strengthening of this bad consciousness: “As its power increases, a community ceases to take the individual’s transgressions so seriously, because they can no longer be considered as dangerous and destructive to the whole as they were formerly” (72). As civilization grows and concretes its existence, the capability of the individual to counteract society diminishes, “with every real growth in the whole, the ‘meaning’ of the individual organs also changes; in certain circumstances their partial destruction, a reduction in their numbers… can be a sign of increasing strength and perfection” (78). While the will on the individual is being suppressed, the dominant will within society feeds off of this and perfects its strength and influence over the whole.
Despite the pessimistic view of man being a product of civilization, Nietzsche argues that
the conception of gods in itself need not lead to the degradation of the imagination that we had to consider briefly, that there are nobler uses for the inventions of gods than for the self-crucifixion and self-violation of man in which Europe over the past millennia achieved its distinctive mastery—that is fortunately revealed by a mere glance at the Greek gods, those reflections of noble and autocratic men, in whom the animal in man felt deified and did not lacerate itself, did not rage against itself!
He argues that there may be hope of man not using the gods it has constructed to keep the slave morality dominant and in turn man will be able to overcome the inherent battle of slave morality. Nietzsche is skeptical yet hopeful that one day a “redeeming man of great love and contempt, the creative spirit whose compelling strength will not let him rest in any aloofness or any beyond… may bring home the redemption of this reality: its redemption from the curse that the hitherto reigning ideal has laid upon it” (96). Should such a hero emerge, the misery as a product of civilization may be of no more.
Nietzsche argues that the consciousness of guilt, or the “bad consciousness” that is affirmed in the “slave morality” is essentially worthless due to its lack of historical instinct (62). He argues that the determining factors for what is essentially “bad” or deserving of punishment is related to the humanity that is accredited to civilization, “a high degree of humanity had to be attained before the animal ‘man’ began even to make the much more primitive distinctions between ‘intentional,’ ‘negligent,’ ‘accidental,’ ‘accountable,’ and their opposites and to take them into account when determining punishments” (62). The reasoning behind such appropriations of punishment is determined with the reasoning that the ‘criminal could have acted differently’ (63) rather than determined by the act itself. This essentially empowers that of the human consciousness, allowing this sort of logic to guide civilization to exert “mercy.”
Nietzsche goes on to argue that “The proud awareness of the extraordinary privilege of responsibility, the consciousness of this rare freedom, this power over oneself and over fate, has in his case penetrated to the profoundest depths and become instinct, the dominating instinct” (60). Consciousness is used as a mechanism to establish power and an individual or group’s domination over the rest of society. The consciousness that allocated power to certain parts of civilization is the same consciousness that established by what means a criminal should be punished. In turn, because the same consciousness worked in both these ways, one is able to witness “This self-overcoming of justice [those in power being unpunished for their crimes]… the beautiful name it has given itself—mercy; it goes without saying that mercy remains the privilege of the most powerful man, or better, his—beyond the law” (73). Through mercy and the establishment of the lack of intent on committing a deed, those in power are able to manipulate justice for their liking.
Through civilization, society is able to expand, contributing to the weakening of the individual and the strengthening of this bad consciousness: “As its power increases, a community ceases to take the individual’s transgressions so seriously, because they can no longer be considered as dangerous and destructive to the whole as they were formerly” (72). As civilization grows and concretes its existence, the capability of the individual to counteract society diminishes, “with every real growth in the whole, the ‘meaning’ of the individual organs also changes; in certain circumstances their partial destruction, a reduction in their numbers… can be a sign of increasing strength and perfection” (78). While the will on the individual is being suppressed, the dominant will within society feeds off of this and perfects its strength and influence over the whole.
Despite the pessimistic view of man being a product of civilization, Nietzsche argues that
the conception of gods in itself need not lead to the degradation of the imagination that we had to consider briefly, that there are nobler uses for the inventions of gods than for the self-crucifixion and self-violation of man in which Europe over the past millennia achieved its distinctive mastery—that is fortunately revealed by a mere glance at the Greek gods, those reflections of noble and autocratic men, in whom the animal in man felt deified and did not lacerate itself, did not rage against itself!
He argues that there may be hope of man not using the gods it has constructed to keep the slave morality dominant and in turn man will be able to overcome the inherent battle of slave morality. Nietzsche is skeptical yet hopeful that one day a “redeeming man of great love and contempt, the creative spirit whose compelling strength will not let him rest in any aloofness or any beyond… may bring home the redemption of this reality: its redemption from the curse that the hitherto reigning ideal has laid upon it” (96). Should such a hero emerge, the misery as a product of civilization may be of no more.
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