Month: May 2015

• May 11, 2015

  Eloquence Training: Episode 1. Obstacles to Eloquence

  I would define eloquence as saying the right thing in the right way with a sense of ease. An eloquent person, then, is someone who often or almost always speaks eloquently. In this introductory episode, I speak with my partner Alexandra about what it was like for her to grow up without being able to…
• May 9, 2015

  The Big Thing: Going Beyond the Challenge

  There are grander terms than challenges and hurdles, and we must come to these. These are mountain terms, seafaring terms, acrobatic terms, martial terms. I want The Big Thing, and it has nothing to do with the weak-kneed ‘challenge at work’ or ‘minor obstacle I’m facing at home.’ What is The Big Thing? It can…
• May 8, 2015

  Nietzsche on the Life Lived Most Intensely

  Lucy Ferry cogently on Nietzsche: In short, in this [Nietzschean] morality of grandeur, it is intensity that has primacy; the will to power carries the day against all other considerations: “There is nothing to life that has value except the degree of power!” This does not mean that there is no such thing as value.…
• May 7, 2015

  Sentimentality and Compassion, or Fire in the Belly

  Those who can breathe the air of my writings know that it is an air of the heights, a strong air…. Philosophy, as I have so far understood and lived it, means voluntarily living among ice and high mountains… How much truth does a spirit endure, how much does it dare? More and more that became for…
• May 4, 2015

  The Falsehood Called Sharing

  A soft culture such as ours consists of a diet of compassion. Compassion makes us docile, putting us to sleep. “Let compassion be everywhere,” we chant. “To the north, south, east, west, above, and below. Compassion for everyone!” Then we go home happy, having provided a service to the planet. Compassion makes us feel good. A soft culture…