How to become someone exceptional
And put your liberty to good use.
“You can become anything”.
Such is the promise made to the modern Man.
Most of the men that came before us lived in incredibly more hierarchical societies than we do. If you were born a peasant in the 11th century, there was little hope for you to become anything different to a peasant. Not to mention women, who generally had an even narrower set of options available.
The great promise of the French Revolution was to free everybody. By abolishing privileges, it would allow everyone — especially the bourgeoisie — to become anything they wanted. The American Dream, which tells you “you can become anything” is merely an expansion of this ideal.
Limitless freedom : You are now free from servitude, religion, castes…
In the past, you were asked to follow the tradition, and the religious principles. Now, it is up to you to set your own course.
Liberty : handle with caution
This freedom that we all have is a double-edged sword.
On one hand, it is an opportunity for you to grow. On the other hand, it rids you of any form of structure and guidance. If you were told “You are free to go wherever you want.” but that you were left in the middle of the Sahara, would it be a gift ?
In fact, freedom is a gift, only if you have a concrete direction where you want to go, a purpose to achieve. Otherwise, it will make you nothing better than a wandering vagrant.
“Free”, do you call yourself ? I want to hear your ruling thought, and not that you have escaped from a yoke.
Saying that you are free is completely irrelevant. Such is the message from Zarathustra, in Nietzsche’s Thus spoke Zarathustra. It does not matter that you became free. What matters is, what is in your mind ?
Are you one entitled to escape from a yoke? Many have cast away their final worth when they have cast away their servitude.
Worse, in the above lines, Zarathustra hints that some people are not even entitled to become free men ! That they are more useful as slaves. And become worthless as free men.
Free from what? What does that matter to Zarathustra! Clearly, however, shall your eye tell me: free for what?
Zarathustra does not give a damn about what you have been freed from. It does not matter at all. The only thing that matters is what you will use the freshly-acquired freedom for.
Can you set to yourself the bad and the good, and make your will as a law above yourself ?
Now that you are no longer living under a yoke, are you capable of deciding for yourself what is right and what is wrong, and of being loyal to that ? Such is the question that Zarathustra is asking you.
The word that he does not use, yet suggests, is : commitment.
Start small
The key message is the following :
A lawless life is not worth any more than a life of slavery. Being free does not mean living under no law. It means choosing the law under which you will live. And committing to your law. Likewise, a people is called “free” when it chooses freely and eagerly its leader, not when it has no leader at all.
While this could seem ethereal and vague, there is an overly simple and concrete way for you to start committing on a daily basis : systematically doing what you said you would do.
This sounds like the most ordinary thing in the world, but it is rare and therefore immensely valuable. Rare because too many people, who confuse their freedom with lawlessness, do not bother themselves with actually keeping their word.
Always keeping one’s word is the bedrock of commitment. It is proof that one’s actions submit to their willpower. And it is the starting point from which to build any sort of undertaking. It is the first proof that you are capable of achieving anything at all.
The more you are able to commit, the harder achievements you can accomplish, and thus become someone, truly exceptional.
Paul
Elements from Thus spoke Zarathustra are extracted from chapter “The way of the creating one”. Zarathustra is somewhat considered as the father of moral, of the duality between good and evil. In this book, he is ironically a prophet for Nietzsche’s new doctrine, that utterly rejects moral, as it is no more than a human invention. In other words, through Zarathustra’s words, Nietzsche speaks.