"I was suspicious, even cynical, about what the world insisted was vital to the life of my unborn child. I was partly sceptical because so much of the advice I was getting was contradictory. But I was also suspicious because I'd spent most of my 20s reading Nietzsche. Nietzsche is not, perhaps, a natural choice for a young mother. But he helps to fuel certain questions about values, and purpose, that are central to questions of care."
"Nihilism is famously the philosophy that nothing matters it is associated with anarchy, hedonism, and those arseholes in The Big Lebowski. But with Nietzsche, nihilism doesn't function as a bullshit shortcut to eschewing responsibility, or a ticket to hedonistic self-indulgence. Nihilism functions first as a diagnosis, then a reckoning, then a prompt. What Nietzsche offers is a way of asking what exactly matters and what if what matters is very, very different from what we have been raised to believe matters."
A pregnant person referred to an impending birth as the apocalypse to deter inquiries, concern, recommendations and advice. Skepticism about conventional child-rearing guidance arose from contradictory recommendations and extensive engagement with Nietzsche during the twenties. Nietzsche prompted examination of values and purpose central to caregiving. Tension emerged between profound responsibilities to loved ones and a strong desire for freedom, adventure and new experiences. Nihilism operated as a diagnosis, a reckoning and a prompt rather than as an excuse for hedonism. Questioning whether what actually matters differs from inherited beliefs became a method for discerning authentic priorities.
Read at www.theguardian.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]