Why You Should Seek Power, Not Happiness — Nietzsche's Guide to Greatness

“…not increase of consciousness is the goal,   but enhancement of power.” Nietzsche, The Will to Power   In the quest to live a good life,  each of us, consciously or implicitly,   chooses an ultimate value around which to  orient our life. For many this value is wealth,   for others it may be status, social-acceptance,  happiness, pleasure, love, knowledge, or comfort.   In this video, drawing from the insights of the  19th century philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche,   we are going to argue that if we want to  maximize our health and fulfillment, the   value we should esteem the highest is power. “What is good? All that heightens the feeling of   power, the will to power, power itself in man.  What is bad? All that proceeds from weakness…Not   contentment, but more power.” Nietzsche, The Will to Power   Many people associate the concept of power with  the ability to control others and to put them in   the service of their needs and desires. But this  is not the type of power Nietzsche had in mind as   for him the desire to control others is often  the manifestation of an underlying weakness,   or inferiority complex. Or as he writes: “…the will of the weak to represent some form   of superiority, their instinct for devious  paths to tyranny over the healthy – where   can this not be discovered, this  will to power of the weakest!”   Nietzsche, On the Genealogy of Morality Instead of power as the Machiavellian control   of others, the type of power Nietzsche thought we  should pursue is a power we embody, and express,   within ourselves. A power, in other words, that  is equivalent to what Nietzsche called “growth   and expansion” (Nietzsche, The Gay Science), or to  what the contemporary philosopher John Richardson   called “the enhancement of a capacity or an  activity already given.” (Nietzsche’s Values)   As a few examples, an athlete who becomes  stronger is increasing his power, as is the   writer who improves her writing, the orator  who sharpens his public speaking abilities,   or the teacher who enhances her capacity to  educate. And in the book Nietzsche’s Values,   John Richardson elaborates on what for Nietzsche  is the highest and purest form of power:   “Power is “more life” not by its mere  continuation, nor by its multiplication,   but by life’s being raised to a higher  level of capacity and control;…Power   is transition to a higher level…a  “self-overcoming”… the point to my life is my   growth or strengthening and [this] lies not merely  in expanding but in ascending, which involves   overcoming previous states of myself.” John Richardson, Nietzsche’s Values   Embedded in Nietzsche’s writings is a guide for  how to attain this power and the first step is to   formulate a goal that fulfills 4 conditions.  Firstly, the goal must be meaningful and   challenging. Secondly, it must promote our health  and well-being, or the well-being of others.   Thirdly, it must be conducive to the  attainment of personal excellence;   and finally, it must be self-chosen,  or in other words, an expression of   our individuality and authentic aspirations. Or  as Nietzsche wrote in an unpublished note:   “For what purpose humanity is there should  not even concern us: why you are here,   that you should ask yourself: and if you have  no ready answer, then set for yourself goals,   high and noble goals.” Nietzsche, Unpublished Note   Once we have a goal that meets these  4 criteria, the next step in attaining   power is to dedicate consistent time each day  to its accomplishment. As we do, we will meet   with obstacles and resistances. Self-doubt,  fear, anxiety, and laziness will plague us.   A lack of time or resources, the doubts and  criticisms of others, or problems with our health   or relationships will impede our progress. In the context of pursuing power, the obstacles   and resistances that stand between us and our  goal present an opportunity. For when we confront   a resistance, if we then stretch the limits of  our mind and body in the quest to overcome it,   we increase our power. Resistances are valuable  for the seeker of power in the same way a   skilled opponent, or enemy, is valuable for the  ambitious warrior. For just as a warrior grows   more skilled when he faces a worthy opponent,  so too resistances function as catalysts that   propel us to enhance our capacities and overcome  our weaknesses. Or as Nietzsche puts it:   “The will to power can only express itself  against resistances; it seeks what resists it…all   expansion, incorporation, growth, is striving  against something that resists…[a strong nature]   needs resistance; hence it seeks resistance.” Nietzsche, The Will to Power   If we engage in what Nietzsche called  “the game of resistance and victory”,   which consists of a “hindrance that is overcome  and immediately followed by another hindrance,   that is again overcome”, we will increase our  power and eventually attain the goal we have   given ourselves. And then, the final step in  Nietzsche’s guide to power is to put the goal,   and whatever it is we have become,  created, or achieved, behind us,   and set our sights on the next, greater, goal. “Whatever I create and however much I love it,   soon I must oppose it and my  love; thus my will wills it.”   Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra Or as the philosopher Bernard   Reginster explains in more detail: “He who wills power must not, strictly speaking,   destroy what he has created, or hate what he  loved. Rather, he must “overcome” what he loved   or created. His will to power soon induces  him to find any given creative achievement,   any attained object of a determinate desire,  no longer satisfying, no longer enough.   The agent in pursuit of power does not seek  achievements, so to speak, but achieving… What he   needs are fresh, new, perhaps greater challenges.  And this explains why the pursuit of power assumes   the form of growth, or self overcoming.” Bernard Reginster, The Affirmation of Life   In the Will to Power, Nietzsche explains that  the pursuit of power is “without final goal,   unless the joy of circle is itself a goal.” Here  the circle represents the cycle of choosing a   goal, confronting and overcoming resistances,  increasing our power, attaining the goal,   and then putting our creations and achievements  behind us, and starting the cycle anew.   In structuring our life around the pursuit of  power there is no point in time, excluding death,   at which we stop partaking in this cycle  – this circle of power. Hence, such a life   is without a final goal, unless, as Nietzsche  explained, we consider the goal to be the joy,   or the great happiness, that is a spontaneous  byproduct of repeatedly increasing our power.   “What is happiness? The feeling that power  increases – that a resistance is overcome.   Nietzsche, The Antichrist “…joy is only a symptom of   the feeling of attained power…one does  not strive for joy…joy accompanies.”   Nietzsche, The Will to Power Nietzsche’s ethics of power has   profound implications for the worldview of modern  man. For it offers a solution to the perennial   problem of suffering. The problem of suffering  is that we need a justification or meaning to our   suffering, otherwise, we become prone to nihilism,  world-weariness, and a festering hatred of life.   Nietzsche frames this problem  in the following passage:   “Man, the bravest of animals, and the one most  accustomed to suffering, does not repudiate   suffering as such; he desires it, he even seeks  it out, provided he is shown a meaning for it,   a purpose of suffering. The meaninglessness  of suffering, not suffering itself, was the   curse that lay over mankind so far.” Nietzsche, On the Genealogy of Morality   Many religious, philosophical, and political  systems throughout history have attempted to   solve the problem of suffering by positing  that this reality in which we suffer is but   a transition to another, better, reality, a “true  world”, in which suffering is kept to a minimum,   or absent completely. Examples of true  worlds include religious heavens, or social   or political utopias that are said to exist on  the historical horizon. Such worldviews attempt   to give suffering a meaning by promoting the idea  that so long as we endure our present suffering,   at some point in the future we will find  redemption in a reality devoid of it.   But the fatal flaw of these so-called  solutions is that they devalue this   earthly reality and the present moment, in  favor of another reality or future moment,   the existence of which we must take on faith.   “The concept ‘beyond’, ‘true world’  invented in order to devalue the only   world there is—in order to retain no goal, no  reason, no task for our earthly reality!”   Nietzsche, Ecce Homo In contrast, Nietzsche’s ethics of power   offers a down-to-earth solution to the problem of  suffering. For if we take power to be the highest   human value – the value that above all promotes  individual flourishing – then we must also value   the resistances that grant us the opportunity  to increase our power. Suffering is defined by   resistance; it is a feeling of pain or distress  as a result of being hindered in some manner.   Therefore, if we value power, we must also value  suffering as it is an essential ingredient of   power. Or as Nietzsche explains : “…human beings do not seek pleasure   and avoid displeasure. What human  beings want…is an increase of power;   driven by that will they seek resistance, they  need something that opposes it – displeasure, as   an obstacle to their will to power, is therefore  a normal fact; human beings do not avoid it,   they are rather in continual need of it.” Nietzsche, The Will to Power   Nietzsche’s worldview does not require any leap  of faith, nor does it encourage us to place our   hopes for salvation in something outside of  us – be it a god, science, a politician, or a   political or religious ideology. It is a worldview  which offers a convincing, and sober, solution   to the problem of suffering. And it promotes a  life of meaningful and productive action, thus   functioning as an antidote to the passivity that  has infected the zeitgeist of modern civilization.   If, therefore, we choose to partake in the  circle of power, or what amounts to the cycle   of continual self-overcoming, we will facilitate  the actualization of our potential and cultivate   the “great happiness” and “great health” that  is the prerogative of the seeker of power.   “Pleasure appears where there is  the feeling of power. Happiness:   in the triumphant consciousness  of power and victory.”   Nietzsche, The Will to Power Or as he wrote in Thus Spoke Zarathustra:   “And life itself confided the secret  to me: behold, it said, I am that which   must always overcome itself.” Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra