1. Heart of Darkness and Nihilism From St. Marks Workshop

2. Part I: Critique of the ground of our civilization • Uncivil, petty, fear-based, dishonest, Romans v. colonists • London is the NY of 1900 – “this too is one of the dark places of the earth” • How did London (or anywhere) go from uncivil to civil? • Are civil societies made civil by civility of “discivility”? • They are honest men – you have stuff we want and we’re taking it • Do we need to lie to enlighten? Is this the “horror”? • The whispers of the asylum and policemen on every corner only = civil society due to FEAR • Civil societies don’t kill the animal they eat – seems like a pure non-hegemonic exercise and the characters find this dishonest • Butchery exists everywhere

3. The threat of violence is what holds peace together… • Critique of the ground of our metaphysics • Light to dark to light (invented to give us meaning) • Dark to light to dark “we live in the flicker” – lightening – reversal of the stories…

4. Part II: Marlowe flips to Jungle’s POV and how PATIENT jungle is City on a Hill (Winthrop) – the world is the Jungle patiently waiting… “…there is now set before us life, and good, death and evil in that we are Commanded this day to love the Lord our God, and to love one another…”

5. Nietzsche’s recipe for Horror (140 years ago) • Assume that the world must be grounded on metaphysically ordered, light, unchanging eternal reality if life is to have meaning. • Doubt/see/conclude that the world is not grounded on metaphysically ordered, light, unchanging eternal reality • Therefore life has no meaning “the horror, the horror”

6. Nietzsche’s view:

7. Plato’s view:

8. What do you do when killing helps you live?