The Greatness of Men

I read Kierkegaard, Nietzsche and Sartre when I was 19, and so should you. Especially if you are 19. Or if you can vividly remember what “IT” was like when you were 19. One year into officially being an adult, inching towards this illusion that you know how “the world works”. This is a great illusion, and it's the sort that gives us the courage to go out there and to do bold things.

Nietzsche has some awesome one-liners that will take you years to fully understand and appreciate. Take this one: “the greatness of men is in his ability to resist a stimulus”. You got to take a fat minute to let that one sink in. Initially you might think about “social media” (why not, right), or maybe you think about irl where you “count to 10”, or where you have a nice cheese-cake in the fridge and you have to resist eating it all.

Well, it’s all of those things.

And it’s way more than just those things.

Let’s add news (entertainment made to be addictive, taking up mental space that you might use towards “better things”). Let’s explore social media some more (zombie-scrolling, so why not “create more than you consume”). Let’s explore coming home after work (crashing on the couch with a six-pack, or taking a quick espresso and engaging in sports). You get the idea.

So the “resist” isn’t just about resisting, but it’s about “choosing”, it’s about “dedication” of “one thing over the other”. And this is why Nietzsche was classified as an existentialist at heart: life is all about dedicating meaning to “our existence”. And the only way to do that is to make a decision of one thing over the other.

The greatest way to get a feel for this is by reading, because it always makes me think of a book that’s described by most as a “mood-piece”. It’s the beginning of The Dark Tower, and in my opinion the only part of the series that’s really worth reading. It’s early Stephen King and I like it because there is more left to the imagination: the imagery is painted with a wide brush, leaving a lot up to the imagination of the reader (versus the other parts of The Dark Tower, which are imo too detailed, and the imagination is not left wondering as much).

What I’m referring to here is The Gunslinger and more than anything else it’s a journey through the desert. It’s unforgiving. It’s raw. And “IT” forces you to re-think what’s really important: it forces you to make sure to figure out a path to make sure you don’t get lost (and die because of hunger or dehydration). So maybe “the greatness of men” here also refers to the ability to choose a path, to forge it, and to hang on for the wild ride.