The key that separates good from "self-identifying as good"…
The key that separates good from "self-identifying as good" is awareness. Awareness of what? Of our own (proclivity and potential for) evil. Someone who sees himself as a sinner is much more likely to be good as someone who sees himself as a saint. Someone who knows that he is dreaming is much more likely to be awake than someone who sees himself as awake. Someone who is aware of his childishness is much more likely to be grown-up than someone who isn't etc etc.
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Self-identifying is the exact opposite of self-awareness.
reading will to power now... not an easy read, but Nietzsche seems to be arguing that all morality is simply a justification of power, and that focusing on our proclivity for evil is a way to stifle our greatness. sounds very post-modern... everything is about power
machiavelli says the same thing not as an "ought" but as an "is", and so does james burnham, he argues that our mythology is a veneer on top of the mechanisms of power
this re-enforces my thinking about the game theory of power... https://home.treechat.ai/quest/77627b9b-f8c5-4fea-97de-a014e8f63cb8
and that unless you can win a war against a collectivist opponent you will inevitably adopt collectivism https://home.treechat.ai/quest/5e3ad091-a753-4ba2-8e65-4697c0d356ae
cc CosmosStag
cc Leo
I think that the important thing is to be aware of the realm we are talking about. What is true in the material (body/mind) world isn’t necessarily true in the spiritual (soul) world. Nietzsche was probably the greatest mind modernity has produced, but apparently he died too young to develop his soul to a decent level. In the mind-body world, which is also the animal world, power is indeed the main thing. Here the end justifies the means and everything is permitted. But for those who strive to be more than an animal there is another layer of reality where power isn't only not the goal, but indeed something to avoid at all costs because it is the most potent corrupting force that exists.
it's gonna be a tough sell when THE OTHER Is banging down your door, unless of course you collectivize along religious lines... crusading christians, and today's fundamentalist muslims can be viewed as collectivists
how can we collectivize, for survival, on-demand, is it possible? I hope bitcoin may hold the answer
All dichotomies are false dichotomies to a degree. That is most certainly also true for individualism/collectivism. This dichotomy implies (at least in the minds of many) that individualists can't possibly organize. That is obviously false. They just organize voluntarily and in the context of protecting individual rights. For the sake of argument we could call that cooperation (individualist organisation) as opposed to coercion (collectivist organisation). I don't think it is clear that collectivist organisation is necessarily more powerful than individualist organisation. But unfortunately it is still much more common. The entire successful part of US history was a victory of organized individualism over the forces of collectivism.