Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Did Friedrich Nietzsche Loved Valentine’s Day?

Even though he’s no longer with us and given his views on human liberation and salvation, did Friedrich Nietzsche ever looked forward to the annual arrival of Valentine’s Day?


By: Vanessa Uy


“Everything done out of love is beyond good and evil.“ Thus spake Friedrich Nietzsche, but have you ever wondered if he ever looked forward to the arrival of Valentine’s Day during his lifetime given his liberating view on the nature of love? Given that during Victorian Times, the wanton commercialization and the overblown vulgar - make that ithiphallic - display of “Romantic Love” have yet to reach our contemporary idiocy in exploiting something that’s both sacred and beautiful. Then ipso facto Nietzsche must have seen Valentine’s Day during his lifetime as just another holiday, but did he really?

When Friedrich Nietzsche got preoccupied about the nature of “societal deception” during the “Gay Nineties” – i.e. the 1890’s. He often quotes about one does not want to be deceived, under the supposition that it is injurious, dangerous, or fatal to be deceived. Plus that other one that goes: “Do not allow yourselves to be deceived: Great minds are skeptical.” If all of this sounds like the inspirational sales pitch of your typical business savvy divorce insurance sales agent, then Friedrich Nietzsche must have been very concerned on how one of mankind’s most beautiful and transcendental life-experiences – namely love – is prone to corruption and manipulation. Given his concern for humanity going down the path that’s riddled with heartache and emotional blackmail, should Friedrich Nietzsche be honored during Valentine’s Day? Well…

Given that the people who supported the massacre at Wounded Knee in the name of Manifest Destiny – or the disastrous Operation Iraqi Freedom of recent times – are still in control when it comes to these things. Friedrich Nietzsche being a “heroic fixture” during Valentine’s Day is something that won’t happen within the foreseeable future. Which is kind of sad really, given that Hallmark, a greeting card company who has their own TV channel can’t capitalize on this. Imagine Nietzschean Valentine’s Day greeting cards, or a mini-series about the life of young Friedrich Nietzsche starring Orlando Bloom being aired on Hallmark’s prime-time scheduling block during Valentine’s Day.

10 comments:

  1. As someone who said "anything done out of love is beyond good and evil.", Friedrich Nietzsche would have been aan excellent marriage counselor.

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  2. Didn't the Humanist greeting card maker The Order of St. Nick already capitalized on Uncle Fred Nietzsche's views on love? Even though their Nietzschean Valentine's Day greeting cards are designated as "anti-Valentine's Day". Anything done out of love is beyond good and evil indeed.

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  3. I've seen those order of St. Nick Nietsche cards. Very Funny.

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  4. As an "existentialist billionaire", Nietzsche was the richest one of them all. Is Valentine's Day an existentialist's holliday?

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  5. As a holiday, Valentine's Day has seldom - if ever - linked with the German existentialist philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. Thanks for dropping a line by the way, all of you. Like Charles Darwin, Friedrich Nietzsche's image has been also marketed by the Order of St. Nick Humanist / Existentialist greeting card company. Too bad Hallmark hasn't been doing the same despite airing Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek: Voyager on their TV channel.

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  6. While Pope Genarius' concept of St. Valentine's Day had recently been admonished by various ultra-orthodox clergy, it's quite ironic that Valentine's Day will have to be saved by a "Humanist" - namely Friedrich Nietzsche. Don't worry a thing about "Uncle Fred" Nietzsche's anti-Semitism. Many Jews from the "diaspora" view Nietzsche as a Jewish version of Viktor Bout.

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  7. Friedrich Nietzsche's views on love, that "Anything done out of love is beyond good and evil." quote is brobably the most interesting thing that happened to Valentine's Day since Pope Gelasius designated February 14 as Valentine's Day back in 496 AD. As a business model for the Order of St. Nick "Humanist" greeting cards, like Charles Darwin as Santa Claus, Valentine's Day card with Friedrich Nietzsche's views are an inevitability.

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  8. Very interesting take on Friedrich Nietzsche. Although there are no "official" research findings yet on his opinions about Valentine's Day.

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  9. Given that most under 25 these days have fallen to the affliction affecting that "robolawyer" Monica Goodling and the Bush Administration Neo-Conservative Cabal. It is quite refreshing that to know that there are still folks around who give a rat's posterior about the great German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. Just check out those other supposedly "Nietzschean" websites that seems to be run by extreme right-wing Christian extremists.

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  10. Have anyone of you seen the movie When Nietzsche Wept starring Armand Assante as Friedrich Nietzsche? I'm just thankful that this historically accurate - though somewhat boring - movie about friedrich Nietzsche is magnitudes better than that recent rework of Sherlock Holmes that harks back to the Beavis and Butt-Head era "Silas Murder" parody.

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