Metaphysical obstructions

In the past few weeks I've dropped excess cultural baggage.  Only this time, it is not the stuff of my youth.  Rather, it's the items I've picked up along the way, for what I had previously taken to be metaphysical truths have turned out to be simple ideologies.

As Nietzsche saw, there are some formulations that will appeal to certain types of people more than others.   Nietzsche's skill was to see the deep psychological tactics that some people try, and others inadvertently get hooked by.  He saw beneath the surface of appearance, to what was actually taking place when people sought to increase their status in society.   There are those, for instance, who do not take part in life, who are ascetics. They're always offering advice, but they're not inclined to take part in the experiences they recommend.   They plausibly suggest that if one were to succumb to their metaphysical view of the world, everything would turn out right.   Their metaphysical ideas are not tested by experience, but stand above the realm of experiential thought.  There is only a loose correlation between metaphysical ideas and any practical outcomes.

There's no direct causal link  between self-development and affluence.   Self-development may take you off the road of even wanting or caring about being successful in any normative way.   Similarly, intelligence does not lead to power, although a  mediocre intellect will latch onto offers to seem valuable to others.

As a child, I never experienced an inner drive or goal to appear to others as necessarily "intelligent" or "helpful".  When I reached Western culture, I thought it was my obligation to nurture an image that appeared in this way.   I had not developed the understanding I have now, that this injunction stemmed entirely from metaphysics, albeit having acquired a "substratum of reality" as Nietzsche says, from the faith invested in it by the masses.   Intelligence does not necessarily have a social use, nor does it need improving or saving the world.   Individuals who have intelligence may do that, but they are not driven to do so by any underlying principles governing reality -- because there is no compulsion for intelligence to show itself in a predetermined format, no matter how socially necessary or desirable that format might be.

Metaphysical formulations don't show reality but cloud it.  Since the time of my childhood and early adulthood had no use for these constructs, I'm abandoning them.   I don't need their obstruction.  I will forge my own way from now on.