Born Too Soon : #4 - Friedrich Nietzsche

Today we feature the philosophical father of /b/, Friedrich Nietzsche. Born in 1844, he exhibited all the precociousness (professor at 24), syphilis, insanity and early death that we've come to expect in this series.

Nietzsche was the master of the aphorism: short, punchy, provocative statements that  "philosophize with a hammer". Nietzsche's works are like motivationals, the philosoraptor meme and troll posts all rolled into one.

"...my ambition is to say in ten sentences what everyone else says in a book

-- what everyone else does not say in a book."

Nietzsche espoused a Dionysian morality: the irrational, life-affirming, yes-saying morality of Homeric heroes. He opposed the Apollonian, rational, life-denying, no-saying, slave-morality of Plato and Christianity.

As befits a "random" board, /b/ is firmly Dionysian: wealth, strength, health and power are "good", the poor, weak, sick and pathetic are "evil". The gravest sin on /b/ is to act as a moralfag. Recurring obsessions with Nazis, blacks, women and cp all fit the Dionysian pattern.

TL;DR: here's a random selection from Nietzche's troll posts:

• Women are considered profound. Why? Because we never fathom their depths. But women aren't even shallow.
• A casual stroll through the lunatic asylum shows that faith does not prove anything.
• The last Christian died on the cross.
• "Faith" means not wanting to know what is true.
• The man of knowledge must be able not only to love his enemies, but also to hate his friends.
• Extreme positions are not succeeded by moderate ones, but by contrary extreme positions.
• He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you.
• Everything the State says is a lie, and everything it has it has stolen.
• What does not destroy me, makes me stronger. 

We end with a rebuttal from Nietzsche's most implacable foe: