“What therefore is truth? A mobile army of metaphors, metonymies, anthropomorphisms: in short a sum of human relations which became poetically and rhetorically intensified, metamorphosed, adorned, and after long usage seem to a notion fixed, canonic, and binding; truths are illusions of which one has forgotten that they are illusions; worn-out metaphors which have become powerless to affect the senses; coins which have their obverse effaced and now are no longer of account as coins but merely as metal.” – Friedrich Nietzsche
As far as animals go, human beings are a peculiar lot. No real fangs, claws or anything all too dangerous. We don’t run very fast, don’t fly. Our muscles are fairly weak when compared to other creatures, and our senses dull. So what has led to our unbridled success on this planet? What has allowed us to dominate all other species?
Our brains, or more specifically, our faculty for reason. Reason is what Nietzsche is referring to in his quote up above. Our ability to make connections between otherwise unrelated things, to build systems and theories of how things work based on how they operate in conjunction with other things is how we’ve survived so well. Think about it: reason allowed man to realize that a particular shape of a rock could be used as a tool to skin animals or cut down prey. Fire could be used to cook meat or keep warm. Man was able to understand relationships.
However, at what point does this faculty for reason become burdensome? At what point does it become useless or, worse, harmful? Nietzsche’s quote above is born of his social malaise, his disgust with how complacent man had become in the face of the mores and values of civilization. Was there really a deep inherent truth to things, or had man simply made a connection between unrelated things and sat back, okay with the answer? Had man forgotten that truth was forever malleable, forever changing, in response to the outside world?
Let’s forget the past tense. Man IS living in a dream. Right now. The dream is being dictated by a series of truths that are mere illusions but to which we’ve given our complete faith. Government. Money. Social customs and values. What is it but an entire system built from the past? Does that make it any less valid? Perhaps. Just because it is not tangible, like a stone tool or fire, does not mean it does not have a tangible effect.
But it is worth thinking about…
Jared Rinaldi 