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Nietzsche and Runaway Audio Consumption

Came across this today. A lot of posts bring up the issue of "how much is enough?" or "when is audio consumption justified" etc.

Does this Nietzsche aphorism apply to audio buying? You be the judge! 

Friedrich Nietzsche: “Danger in riches. — Only he who has spirit ought to have possessions: otherwise possessions are a public danger. For the possessor who does not know how to make use of the free time which his possessions could purchase him will always continue to strive after possessions: this striving will constitute his entertainment, his strategy in his war against boredom. 

Thus in the end the moderate possessions that would suffice the man of spirit are transformed into actual riches – riches which are in fact the glittering product of spiritual dependence and poverty. They only appear quite different from what their wretched origin would lead one to expect because they are able to mask themselves with art and culture: for they are, of course, able to purchase masks. By this means they arouse envy in the poorer and the uncultivated – who at bottom are envying culture and fail to recognize the masks as masks – and gradually prepare a social revolution: for gilded vulgarity and histrionic self-inflation in a supposed ‘enjoyment of culture’ instil into the latter the idea ‘it is only a matter of money’ – whereas, while it is to some extent a matter of money, it is much more a matter of spirit.” 

Nietzsche, Friedrich. 1996. Human, All Too Human: A Book for Free Spirits. Cambridge University Press. (p. 283-4, an aphorism no. 310)

I'm pretty sure @mahgister will want to read this one! (Because they speak so artfully about avoiding the diversion that consumption poses to the quest for true aesthetic and acoustic excellence.)

128x128hilde45
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,213 posts
 

@mahgister I personally find your posts here very interesting and well informed  and I actually learn a lot of new things about philosophers and such. I suspect many others do as well.

I do think you could do better to stay on topic though. We all have things we can improve on. That is merely my suggestion to you. I say it in an honest attempt to help you be more effective. We should always encourage polite conversation however concise conversation that is on point is always more effective, persuasive, etc. I would not offer feedback in an attempt to help you be more effective were I not fond of the ideas you profess. Well except when things start steering towards conspiracy theories perhaps. We are all imperfect in many ways. The road to improvement often involves accepting and acting on constructive criticism. It is a gift on can give another with only the best intentions.

Anyhow, now I am off topic and may get flagged as spam so enough of that. Carry on!

mahgister's avatar
mahgister
13,043 posts
 

Your post really moved me because you are sincere... and for sure right..

It is a great gift to regain faith in humanity... Thanks...

I thank you...

And i wish you the best from my heart....

mapman's avatar
mapman
22,213 posts
 

…and I thank you for always sharing your learnings with others here as well. Perhaps if we are fortunate we will learn something as well.  🙏

hilde45's avatar
hilde45 OP
4,974 posts
 

As much as people deride Nietzsche, wow -- what energy he generates. If I want a short thread that dies quickly, I'll go with Kant or Aquinas! In fact, I think Nietzsche is better than even Chomsky for generating light and heat.

Then again, there's Benjamin...he could light things up! Viz., "capitalism is a purely cultic religion, perhaps the most extreme that ever existed….Capitalism is the celebration of the cult [without dream or mercy]…each day commands the utter fealty of each worshipper….entirely without precedent, in that it is a religion which offers not the reform of existence but its complete destruction. It is the expansion of despair, until despair becomes a religious state of the world in the hope that this will lead to salvation. God’s transcendence is at an end. But he is not dead; he has been incorporated into human existence. This passage of the planet “Human” through the house of despair in the absolute loneliness of his trajectory is the ethos that Nietzsche defined. This man is the superman, the first to recognize the religion of capitalism and begin to bring it to fulfillment." [Capitalism as Religion (Benjamin, 1921)]

But let's not attack all our gods at once! Ignorance is bliss, amirite? ;-)

djones51
4,947 posts
 

I don't think anyone would attack the Flying Spaghetti Monster, who doesn't like noodles? 

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