How to think about your FUTURE

The most important essay Nietzsche ever wrote: The Use and Abuse Of History For Life. Not the most famous, not the most reprinted - but the most timeless. He raises two seminal questions:

One: What is our attitude to the future?

Two: What SHOULD be our attitude to the future?

People have become “sluggishly indifferent to the wellbeing of others” - and to their own as well! The prevailing mood: “If only the ground will go on bearing us! And if it ceases to bear us, that too is very well - that is their feeling and thus they live an ironic existence.”

This sluggishness to life is evident in all aspects of culture. There is statistical proof that songs are becoming more alike, reboots of old films are more popular than fresh stories, birth rates are at a historic low, and anti-depressant pill usage is at a historic high.

Nietzsche writes that we modern people are the "fulfilment of Hesiod's prophesy." Hesiod predicted: "Men would one day be born already grey-haired and that as soon as he saw that sign, Zeus would eradicate this race." Born grey-haired! Pessimism rampant even amongst the young...

The phrase Bonfire of the vanities might sound familiar. There was a bestselling novel in the 80s with this title. But the historical bonfire happened in 16th century Florence when a Christian preacher burnt priceless pagan "paintings, manuscripts" because they're sinful.

Why destroy gorgeous tapestries, old sculpture, and fascinating books? Because great art hints at the "astonishing" creativity of the human spirit. Great art inspires "grand hopes" within us and becomes our "spur" to achievement. Those who hate life, hate such art.

People today are too willing to nod yes "like a Chinese mechanical doll" to any outside power, whether it be "government or public opinion or a numerical majority" or historical inevitability. Nietzsche wrote to bring back "exalted" goals, to suffuse his readers with agency.

Our attitude to the future should be full of hope, not exhaustion. However, it's impossible to change our attitude to the future without changing our attitude to the past. Objective historians today have become little more than glorified "antiquarians and gravediggers."

But Nietzsche writes that there's an alternative way of studying history. Compare the exhausting, life-negating, objective style of history with heroic history.

Uses and Abuses of History For Life is an multi-dimensional essay and I've collected its main insights here. Dig in - it will transform your understanding of science, human nature, and the roots of great achievement.