In his essay Beyond Good and Evil: Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future
Nietzsche contends that the man of today is thoroughly limited in his scope. Unlike his predecessors, he cannot hope to be
great. These limitations are partly due to the blinders he places upon himself by directing all of his studies into a particular area: invariable one ‘useful’ to his profession and to the present. In these arguments,
Nietzsche succeeds in generalizing the situation of
man and
society such that his point is both correct and meaningless.
Nietzsche complains that all knowledge has been chopped up into “specialties” and that the
holistic worldview of the
philosopher has become an unwanted
relic. What
Nietzsche fails to consider in his argument is the sheer volume of
knowledge that now exists. Where once it may have seemed restrictive to concentrate on one area of thought, even one chunk of the incredible abundance of information that exists today is a significant amount for a man to possess. In addition to his specialties, a man also has a certain innate capacity: to experience
emotion, recognize
beauty, feel
disgust, and embody the nuances of
humanity.
Nietzsche speaks of the philosopher as “
a man of tomorrow” implying that the dreary masses exist solely for the moment, without care for the future. Once again, the modern world defies
Nietzsche’s generalization. More than ever before, all of
mankind must look to the future: both for inspiration and as a yardstick upon which to measure our present actions. With our incredible power to change the world we must always temper our
industriousness with an understanding of what these changes will mean for our future. In this regard, all men have now become “
the bad conscience of our age.”
Nietzsche characterizes the modern world as a sphere of selfish
sycophants, where men are bound in an “
equality of wrongdoing.” Such a view stems from a
pessimistic appraisal of the present time and the versatility of man. While the enormous
population of the
earth dooms an ever greater number to insignificance, the sheer force of those numbers can also act to propel a man to such greatness as has never been seen in
history. A significant percentage of the people who have ever lived speak, work, and love atop the earth today; to benefit this multitude, regardless of how slightly, is a fine and worthy achievement.
Do we not have respect for those who “
endure and take things upon themselves?” Do we not seek “
wholeness” and “
diversity” in our lives? Has ‘
balance’ not become a
buzzword of our age? Are we not inspired by tales of
bravery,
heroism, and
justice? Do we not, as
Socrates did, recoil from
hypocrisy and
evil? Each of these queries receives the same response as
Nietzsche’s pensive “
Is greatness possible today?”: a definite yes.
Even as
Nietzsche claims to be a man of the future, surging forward to eradicate
ignorance, he is
reactive in his approach. He seeks to rewind humanity to the
golden age, before the division of
knowledge had compartmentalized human
wisdom. Ultimately, he is less progressive than the people he condemns. In trying to mould his future he looks back to
Athens; in describing the modern philosopher,
Socrates is his model. To be “
solitary, concealed, and beyond good and evil” is to place oneself outside
society; and, given that the advancement of society is
Nietzsche’s professed goal, his ideal seems ridiculous.
As
Nietzsche describes it, greatness is indeed impossible today. Regardless of one’s determination or strength of will, one cannot revert the
Earth to what it once was. Rather, in embracing the modern world, with all of its facets and startling mysteries, it is possible to encounter a greatness that at present exists only in the thoughts of our future visionaries and leaders: the
great men of tomorrow.