Quotable Quotes #5
“You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist.”
- Friedrich Nietzsche
There is definitely no one perfect way to do something. Too many variants exist with too many things in life, especially when dealing with people, and the way people think and do things. This is what defines individuality. We're not robots, and shouldn't be expected to act as such.
Someone needs to drive this into the head of my narrow-minded, self-serving, arrogant boss. In a meeting not long ago, he actually uttered the words "my way or the highway", then in the same breath he had the nerve to follow it with "and I hate to use that phrase." Well, you spit it out there pretty damn well, prick. Can I get you a hot cup of fuck you? Do you take one or two kiss my asses with that?
posted by aboynamedjimmy at 1:51 AM
3 Comments:
Your boss sounds like an ass (and, as an ass, I can say that and still be PC), but Nietzsche was wrong. There *are* correct ways to do some things, and some ways are more right than others. For example, beating one's spouse and children is a way to maintain control in the home, but it is neither right nor correct, nor is it better than love.
Besides which, if there is no right way, then there is no right way to interpret what Nietzsche said, and so therefore I think the passage you quoted indicates ol' Syphilitic Frieddie was hankering for a cheeseburger. Sorry, but absolute statements defending relativity bother me :-)
Unlike Nietzsche, I do agree with you: we are not robots, we are individuals. "My way or the highway" is usually less about correctness and more about power. Invoking such language is a nice postmodern power trip (Foucault would be proud, as would Frieddie himself, who also made such brilliant statements as: "The world itself is the will to power - and nothing else! And you yourself are the will to power - and nothing else!" Ah, power games...)
Oh, one more by Nietzsche: "The true man wants two things: danger and play. For that reason he wants woman, as the most dangerous plaything." The "true" man, the "true" (or perhaps "correct" or "right") way of being a man... is to treat a woman as a dangerous plaything. Damn, well, Hitler loved him, so he couldn't be all bad.
Well, first of all, I don't think "Frieddie" had spousal and child abuse in mind when he came up with that quote. In fact, I personally think this is one of those quotes that doesn't need too much read into it at all, unless you choose to. I interpreted it as merely a definition of individuality, not an all-encompassing statement implying that there's no one correct way to do anything on the earth, now and forever. My using the quote here was exactly what the post boiled down to: a rant about my boss. The quote made me think of that situation, and that's why I used it.
I am glad you agree with me on my boss being a total ass-hat. ;-)
There is another interesting (as are most) quote by Nietzsche: “All things are subject to interpretation whichever interpretation prevails at a given time is a function of power and not truth.”
In this case, as your boss has the power, it is, therefore by decree, his interpretation which will prevail.
Does this make him any more less of an ass? No… In fact I would argue that this is a prime example of yet another famous quote by Lord Acton: “Power tends to corrupt, absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
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