Apparitions and Nietzsche on Conquered Ideas
The ideas we thought we conquered have a way of returning.
I submit that depressed people are often the ones who spend the most time thinking. At least, this has been the case with the depressed people I’ve known.
We’ve all heard or been told “not to think so much” or “stop overthinking everything.”
Maybe you’re the one who says this. Or maybe you’re the person who receives this old wisdom.
These exhortations usually come around when we have thought ourselves into a tangled mess…
Resulting in heightened depression, anxiety, cynicism, or pessimism. Or maybe a dark mixture of all four.
When I was a child, I used to tell my dad, “I’ve been thinking…”
And he’d respond: “Uh-oh…that’s dangerous territory.”
My father is a cynic. But he’s also a jokester. And he meant this as a joke. But there’s something profoundly true about the dangers of thought.
Friedrich Nietzsche famously said: “When we are tired, we are attacked by ideas we conquered long ago.”
The word “tired” here could be switched out for “unsure.”
When we’re unsure about the future…when we’re unsure about our careers…when we’re unsure about our self-worth…that’s when nasty thoughts have a way of sneaking in through the backdoor of our minds.
And during this vulnerable time of unsurety, we start to entertain thoughts and ideas we defeated a long time ago.
After I was laid off from my job, negative thoughts spilled in…
I thought I might have to go back to fast food or retail. There’s nothing wrong with these industries, but they would be a huge downgrade from what I’ve managed to achieve thus far in my career.
Those thoughts still come around.
When someone leaves a negative comment on my YouTube channel, I start to question if they’re right in what they said. For a moment, I forget about why I started the channel in the first place.
Nietzsche was right.
We are attacked by once-defeated thoughts when we are shaken by something outside our control. Social media has a special way of summoning these demons.
We might question the meaning of the universe after a loved one dies. This has happened to me on more than one occasion…and I’m sure you’ve experienced this.
Unfortunately, there’s no way to avoid these negative thoughts…but we can recognize them for what they are…
Apparitions.
Shadows.
Unreality.
In other words, these once-defeated thoughts that visit us are usually our insecurities reflecting themselves on us…insecurities we bury deep down when we’re doing well.
In the 21st century, Nietzsche’s wise flourish may be similar to “facing our demons”…something we hear a lot about.
And we must face them. There’s no avoiding them.
But their weakness is in our realizing them for what they are.