Note (1870-71) - Flowerless America

"A state that cannot attain its ultimate goal usually swells to an unnaturally large size. The world-wide empire of the Romans is nothing sublime compared to Athens. The strength that really should go into the flower here remains in the leaves and stem, which flourish."

The Portable Nietzsche, pg. 32

Ahh....where to start?? I can't help but draw a comparison to the behemoth empire of America with which I reside -- or even bigger yet the so-called western civilization which is more and more becoming a single "state." As I have a habit to do, I constantly seek approval from Nietzsche. Nothing excites me more than when I can interpret a passage of his in a way that confirms a belief I already held (I understand this reveals some sort of intellectual insecurity and is scholastically dangerous, but ey...I'm working on it). This passage "confirms" my idea that a huge problem with our current state of affairs is just the massive size of our country/culture. The supposed "power" that we have in this "democracy" is our ability to vote. Your high school civics teacher as well as numerous other people try to illude you with the belief that this matters and is an actual power. I personally don't consider having 1/300,000,000ths of a say in how the laws are written and where my tax money goes really much of a say at all. I realize this all deserves a much longer discussion, which I am willing to have if anyone thinks it would be interesting and productive, but let's for now say that the smaller the democratic "state" is the more power (and thus freedom and control) you have. This, of course is not what Nietzsche is saying here, but it is, I feel, a powerful argument against the unnaturally large state.

It's the goals of a state that Nietzsche is hitting upon in this passage. America and the Romans have/had unattainable goals. A common -- and I feel correct -- critique of American culture is the constant desire for more and more whether it be a bigger vehicle, a bigger house, or just simply bigger piles of money. Beyond these unattainable goals driving individuals, it is an important and valuable task to ask what the goal of our country is. I am unable to answer this, partially because it is most likely different for different groups of Americans. One thing I believe they all have in common though, is this striving for something further-- "a more perfect union," or "peace on earth," or a nation full of evangelicals (christianexodus.org), or just the biggest most powerful country ever (so that we can spread "liberty," justice, and kill undemocratic people). Nietzsche is praising the culture of Athens for having put their strength into the flower; not necessarily just extending their stems and leaves in a striving for some unattainable utopia, but rather accepting the life and condition they were in and putting their strength into the enrichment and beautification of it. They didn't suffer from the wildly pervasive and appealing illusion most Americans have of a "light at the end of the tunnel." This right here is it, this is what you have, there's no point in continuing to reach/run for more, you will just continue to have an insipid flowerless life. We move though as if we can't resist the urge, like a mosquito, to this imaginary light which seems to be eternally just out of our reach.

Things/Ideas that I feel go with this passage:
- The "light at the end of the tunnel" caused me to pull from my memory a narration given towards the end of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. #2 on this page (with very nice portraits of LSD celebrities)
http://www.alternativereel.com/includes/top-ten/display_review.php?id=00095

- I also was reminded of what I have heard of Vonnegut's utopian ideas. I shamefully haven't read any of his works, but I did attend a friends Senior research presentation in college on what his ideal society would be. The ideal basically composed of small and completely cut off communities that would be have belief systems that worked for them and made them content and not desire expansion (it was ok if they were all false beliefs as long as everyone followed them and they never had science or culture clashes to make them question it).

- I have also read in more than one place about what size of group humans "best" function at -- our appropriate level -- which if i remember correctly is something like 125 people, slightly less than 300,000,000.