Monday, October 17, 2011

On newspapers



I recently had to cancel my subscription of the Financial Times due to, yes, financial difficulties. Ironic, I know.

Reading Nietzsche and his comments in Thus spoke Zarathustra somewhat appeased me and my bad conscience (a sentiment Nietzsche would question - why do I feel that I ought to read the newspaper? Whose values have I adopted and for what reason?).

In XI on the new idol (aka the state), he says that those citizens who obey the state, that is, who have made it their new idol, "vomit their vile and call it a newspaper" In German the word bile/gall is used and its bodily function epitomises Nietzsche's contempt: the gall, according to wikipedia, is "a bitter-tasting, dark green to yellowish brown fluid"

Having said all that, I still miss getting my pinkish paper through the letter box every day!