Nietzsche vs. Atheists - Historian Tom Holland - #nietzsche #atheism #shorts
In this short, Tom Holland makes a compelling point: there is a superficiality or shallowness to English-speaking liberal imagination that is at root "contemptuous" (as Holland terms it) because it is glibly counter-productive: Its laziness and inability to follow the conclusions of their own commitments is the source of much of the moral inertia in the modern era when it came to the structuring of society towards higher spiritual ends (which Nietzsche, the great theorist of Opera, for example, was deeply interested in).
When you realize what Nietzsche's project was (namely, the reviving of Hellenism properly understood in its religious sense for the post-Christian millennia), you realize that he took the decline of Christianity quite seriously in ways that Marxists and liberals alike could not fully appreciate given their psychological naivety. He was much far advanced in considering what such a collapse would mean for humanity's own morale and sense of purpose to aspire towards higher ideals.
For Nietzsche, Christian belief was the semantic web that provided the civilizational coherence, commonality of purpose, and harmony of many modern institutions, including democracy, natural rights, personal freedoms, individual tolerance, presumption of innocence, etc. He believed that disavowing the theology on intellectual grounds was simply not enough. You had to contend with the moral vacuum that this decline in religious observance and belief would involve.
One would have to pull down the entire Christian heritage. Then, one would have to construct something in its place.
The question of today's left is whether they see the same task before them and whether they have any clue of what would replace all the vast majority of the citizenry would hold dear.
If you find yourself inclined towards secular unbelief, you have to ask yourself whether the Left really provides a worthwhile direction for you.
Suffice to say, I have my doubts...
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