[Pistias]

Educated or no, look at it this way: "self-confidence" means believeing in the genuineness--the rightness--of one's understanding and practice of the true, the good, and the beautiful. And I agree, societies must think they're doing the right thing, or they lose the spirit which in large part decides any conflict.

But care must be taken: Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer were quite confident that they'd figured it out, and that they were doing the right thing (i.e., exactly what they wanted so long as they didn't get caught). But we can see that this is a heinous, false, insane understanding of human life.

Nietzsche was a cultural relativist--he thought "every society is entitled to their own opinion," and carried it to its logical conclusion: that, since no opinion is true and therefore the best, each opinion was worth the same--nothing. Thus, any opinion your will is commited to--that you're confident in--is justifiable. Walden was written along lines Nietzsche agreed with--that modern reason is toxic, and a return to more natural foundations was necessary. He just went to a bad "natural" place.

That was a mouthful. I've got to go pick up my girlfriend. Adios.

[walden]

You obviously didn't read the same "Walden" I did, and you have completely misinterpreted my opinion of the self-confidence of the Victorians. They were good, and they were confident in their judgment of what was good. I don't think Bundy and Dahlmer had any consideration of goodness at all.