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comment by randomuser

A thought in here I think I see that I like is the idea of relative comparability. That your best feeling can only be as good as your worst was bad.

IE:

In a sine wave you have to apex, a + and a - and within each frequency, the apex will be equivalent on their respective side. You can increase or decrease amplitude, but the apex on either side will increase or decrease to match. Metaphorically, life is like this...up>down>up>down kind of like waves. But, at least in my experience, the worse your downs get, the better your ups can get.

I think Nietzsche was saying you should force the downs to happen and force them to be worse so that you can intensify your ups. Which is stupid, IMO, because even if this is how it works the best and worst feelings would be relative and if everyone started with the same scale of ability to pleasure or pain, no one would be aware that you could feel better or worst than their best or worst until they felt better or worse than those apex feeling.

Bit of a tongue twister at the end there sorry.





req  ·  3621 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Where are you getting that he thinks we should make bad things happen and make the bad things worse? I've never seen such a sentiment and I think he would be against a person harming themselves, that is not something a strong will does.

Rather, he is saying it is good when people suffer because it proves they have value, that they can endure.

randomuser  ·  3620 days ago  ·  link  ·  

"If you decide for the former and desire to diminish and lower the level of human pain, you also have to diminish and lower the level of their capacity for joy."

req  ·  3572 days ago  ·  link  ·  

The whole quote gives it a lot more meaning

    To this day you have the choice: either as little displeasure as possible, painlessness in brief – and in the last analysis socialists and politicians of all parties have no right to promise their people more than that – or as much displeasure as possible as the price of growth of an abundance of subtle pleasures and joys that have rarely been relished yet. If you decide for the former and desire to diminish and lower the level of human pain, you also have to diminish and lower the level of their capacity for joy.