I just read some heart-poundingly beautiful stuff, and had to share it:
I regard the bad conscience as the serious illness which man was bound to contract under the stress of the most radical change which he has ever experienced–that change, when he found himself finally imprisoned within the pale of society and of peace.
Just like the plight of the water-animals, when they were compelled either to become land-animals or to perish, so was the plight of these half-animals, perfectly adapted as they were to the savage life of war, prowling, and adventure–suddenly all their instincts were rendered worthless and “switched off.”
All instincts which do not find a vent without, turn inwards–this is what I mean by the growing “internalization” of man: consequently we have the first growth in man, of what subsequently was called his soul. The whole inner world, originally as thin as if it had been stretched between two layers of skin, burst apart and expanded proportionally, and obtained depth, breadth, and height, when man’s external outlet became obstructed.
This, dear readers, is from Friedrich Nietzsche’s The Genealogy of Morals, and he wrote it in 1887 (not a typo). The relationship between individual and society, social evolution, subjectivity, metaphysics, activity theory, simulation, and historical materialism can all be found in this quote alone. The rest of the book is just as beautiful and just as rich in poetry and social theory. I used to think Marx was the most rewarding author (measured in spectacular insights / line) in the history of modern social thought. In my very humble opinion, he’s just moved to number two.
I think I need to go back and reread all of the writers that I hated in high school and college. First Nietzsche, then Joyce, then Woolf, then (if I get around to it) Conrad.
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