Nietzsche's Life and Heidegger's Death: The Singularity of Fate

Fate is a wonderful phenomenon. Not only is it the order by which all things guide their behavior(the most immoral of morals) it is the gracious gift that provide us with our everyday experiences and interactions. Although fate is an elusive subject for humanity (predestination is a common theme of various ideologies, religions, and ism's,) it is always immanent and unavoidable in the wake of our unfolding path of existence, that is to say it is always already about too happen. These interactions and experiences gifted to us by the uncanny force of fate inherent in our universe.

Although philosophy has struggled with this problem for centuries. What is the human will? What has allowed us to receive our world as it is(social constructs, cultural traits, and mainly concepts that inscribe meaning onto everyday manifestations(ontic) that literally produce our actions)? Science, religion, philosophy, psychology have all had their say in the issue with varying interpretations(yet so similar in nature). For today's purpose I wish to intersect two thinkers that I believe have the ability to better acquaint us to this stranger in our own home. Nietzsche and Heidegger Both men obviously having similiarities in both nationalism and thought Heidegger took much of Nietzsches analytic of existence and adapted it too his own analytics later in his magnum opus "Being and Time"

First, we must borrow a quote from Nietzsche to begin our discussion

“Love Your Fate, which is in fact your life.”

Nietzsche tells us subtly that the guaranteed path of experience for the subject is life. If this statement is true* then we have to immediately answer yet another question. The question that I seek to aid and supplement with analysis here is how do we define life? Although both thinkers mentioned offer many characteristics and explanations of our life there is a common thought in both that emphasize certain aspects of our existence. Nietzsche would tell us that humanity is predetermined to play in the great cosmic game. We are determined to participate in the great spectacle of antagonisms, life has defined its struggles, crueltys, joys, and pleasures we are ensured to return to eternally.

Heidegger build upon this decry. For Heidegger and Nietzsche death is this inevitable force that is the fate of all of humanity. Heidegger understands death as the most impossible possibility for Dasein(beings). He comes to this conclusion by asserting that it is impossible to think the unthought, because in in reaching and searching for the unthought you are simultaneously thinking. In this inability to 'think' death humanity is shown the finitude of their seemingly unbounded existence. Heidegger addressed this fate as "being-towards-death". He attempted in his existential analytic to disavow the understanding that death is something evil and opposite of life but to understand them as integrally related to one another.

The Debt of 9/11/01

First before I start I would like to give a shout out to Hank--UT PLAN II! Mazel Tov!

Now onto a recent thought. Why did the United States invade Afghanistan in 2001? 9/11. We all know that, but why are we still there? What is our justification for mass warfare?

The American people feel indebted to the victims, the thousands of people who died on 9/11. Our military action against Al-Qaeda, the Patriot Act and new TSA policies were all justified by the invocation of 9/11. We feel a debt to those who died, but is this debt legitimate? How does this debt affect our daily lives? This debt is what Nietzsche calls "Bad Conscience" as he describes it in the second essay of Genealogy of Morals "I consider bad conscience the profound illness which human beings have come down with, under the pressure of the most fundamental of all changes which they experienced-that change when they found themselves locked within the confines of society and peace. Just like the things water animals must have gone through when they were forced either to become land animals or to die off, so events must have played themselves out with this half-beast so happily adapted to the wilderness, war, wandering around, adventure-suddenly all its instincts were devalued and "disengaged."

This bad conscience that Nietzsche outline precludes us from living our daily lives. We feel a sense of obligation in this post 9/11 era to support the doings of the state and be patriotic--it is because of the debt we feel to those that lost their lives on 9/11 that we put up with FBI wiretaps, TSA pat downs, and increased video surveillance. Would a society founded on individual rights so easily agree to things such as the Patriot Act? No. Nietzsche explains once again in the second essay from Genealogy of Morals that our adaptation as a population "was initiated by an act of violence and was carried to its conclusion by nothing but sheer acts of violence.." I believe Nietzsche's thesis holds true for the U.S. We are locked in credtor-debtor relationship that Nietzsche describes. We as the American people take on both roles. We are the debtors to those who perished on 9/11, we owe them our freedom and therefore with that freedom we take up the position of the credtor towards Afghanistan, Al-Qaeda harmed us, they took thousands of lives and we must make them pay. The U.S. invasion of Afghanistan is the credtors act of inscribing his superiority over the debtor, it is our attempt to make Osama bin Laden pay for what he did.

It is because of this "Bad Conscience" we have as a nation that I propose we forget 9/11/01. Not forget those who died, but do not make them the idols to which we are indebted. We must treat 9/11 like any other day in history. Only if we forget 9/11 are we able to focus on the present, we need to attempt to live our lives instead of trying to repay our infinite debt to those who came before us.