Nietzsche and Me

~ This is completely different post; not at all entertaining. The incident mentioned here happened a month back. Last day I happened to read a small writing on Nietzsche. The below post is a combo of both. ~

Whenever I get a prize in the school or I score good marks, when I land a good job or get a word of appreciation, I would be beaming with pride. At home we are taught to be humble. So I try not to take the credit. That is an imbibed value which is sometimes interpreted as forced modesty.

But it is when I feel ridiculously ashamed of myself that my emotions are high. There is an adapted helplessness and indifference within me. And I abhor that.

The other day I was walking fast to get to the cab. There were hundreds of people walking faster than me. I was starting to cross the road when I heard a hullabaloo. There was a man lying on the road and he was making some violent spasmic convulsive gestures. Either he was hit and run or it was an attack of fits.

He lay down just behind me. People started crowding round him. I saw him and had this urge to help. But I kept walking ahead with my head turned back to see what was happening to him. I got on to the cab and left. I kept looking back till the buildings hid my view. Till that time no one had taken any effort to help the man. There were policemen. They might have taken charge of the situation after I left.

I am not bothered as to why people didn’t help him. After all, everyone’s sense of moral values and responsibilities are different.

I am ashamed and lost my self respect because I didn’t do anything to help that man. A human life had no value than a couple of gasps and sympathetic looks. God forbid, but if he hasn’t survived, I am guilty of my indifference. I take it when a close friend consoled me saying I have limitations being a woman. I would not have lifted him into a cab nor done all the running around in the hospital. But that doesn’t justify me being inert. The whole day I was upset thinking about that. But being upset or feeling guilty doesn’t vindicate me of my lethargy.

Friedrich Nietzsche talks about two types of morality. Master morality and slave morality. Master morality relates to good and bad while slave morality is about good and evil. Slave morality is not opposite to this. It is a different thought altogether.

I am not intellectually grown up to bisect Nietzsche. Neither have I read this particular book wherein he discusses his thoughts on this, though I have read another one. The book is Beyond Good and Evil. But I recollect a conversation with my brother who told me about Nietzsche and his school of thought.

Master morality arises in strong people who consider good as strength, power and right. This is kind of innate. Everything else is bad.

In contrast to that Evil morality arises in weak and suppressed people. They too have a sense of good; but bad is replaced by evil.

Though Nietzsche doesn’t exactly fit in here, I think that I belong to the second category. I am averse to anything that is evil. The problem with the second type is that, I feel, I tend to avoid whatever is evil. But I don’t have the strength to pursue the Good all the time. Beyond that, Evil is the extreme Bad. So my bad gets blurred between Good and Evil.

The bottom line is, whatever philosophy I borrow to confuse you and myself, I didn’t take the time or alertness to help a poor soul. But I have time to blog, worry about reservations and can be the first one to protest if my salary is to be dropped by even a rupee.

So I have the energy, time and all that I need as a human being. It is just that the values that I have inherited are getting lost as I move up in my life adding to my so called achievements. Despite writing this, I am not sure if I would take the initiative a second time. Hope to.