On Friends and Enemies — Nietzsche's Poem "The Good Man" and Sun Tzu on The Art of War
Continuing my inquiry into the philosophical content of Nietzsche’s poetry, I come to Nietzsche’s poem “The Good Man” (Nietzsche, The Gay Science, ‘Joke, Cunning, and Revenge’: Prelude in German Rhymes, No. 14):
14. The Good Man
Better an enmity cut from one block
than a friendship help together by glue.
The distinction between friendship and enmity has been on my mind recently. I have been fortunate in my life to have a large number of genuine friends who know the true meaning of friendship. And I fully anticipate that there are future genuine friends out there in the world yet to be discovered. And yet, I have also become aware recently of a type of fake friendship, of enemies masquerading as friends, of enemies hiding their true motivations under a cloak of sunshine masking their true intentions. And on the other end of the spectrum there lie the people who are enemies even in name and in the open, those with whom I wage war openly or behind the scenes, and vice versa, the people who embrace enmity instead of trying to hide it under a mask of crocodile friendship.
In his poem “The Good Man,” Nietzsche seems to be saying that true enemies, an enmity cut from one block, as he calls it, are better off than friends with an artificial or unnatural friendship; it’s better to have true enmity than a friendship that is more chimera than natural. Many of my friends are true friends, with our friendship arising from a shared nature that draws us to one another, like seeing like within each other. Some friendships, in contrast, are far more tenuous, being held together by circumstance, by the shallower or more ephemeral parts of life, or at worst held together inauthentically against each other’s mutual wills for some ulterior motive.
I cannot help but respect the people that hate me openly in the light of day. And I cannot help but pity those who hate me in secret while publicly professing and showing merely the external signs of friendship (unless they do so strategically in the style of Sun Tzu; more on that below). The latter are weaker people, perhaps ashamed of and cowering from even their own inner darkness, afraid to let the darkness out for the world to see, lest it betray who they really are inside. I can respect a wolf who knows it’s a wolf and embraces its own wolf-like nature, and I can even respect a sheep with no wolf-like tendencies whatsoever (even if I sometime pity the sheep for not having more wolf-like qualities). I can’t, however, to use a tired metaphor, respect a wolf in sheep’s clothing. A wolf in sheep’s clothing is an affront to both sheep and wolves alike.
As I continue to think about friendship and enmity, I can’t help but recall the well-known phrase often misattributed to Sun Tzu: “Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.” Even if this quote isn’t directly attributable to Sun Tzu, the concept is clearly found in other passages from Sun Tzu’s The Art of War. For example:
“By discovering the enemy’s dispositions and remaining invisible ourselves, we can keep our forces concentrated, while the enemy’s must be divided.” (The Art of War, Weak Points and Strong, No. 13)
“O divine art of subtlety and secrecy! Through you we learn to be invisible, through you inaudible; and hence we can hold the enemy's fate in our hands.” (The Art of War, Weak Points and Strong, No. 9)
“Whoever is first in the field and awaits the coming of the enemy, will be fresh for the fight; whoever is second in the field and has to hasten to battle will arrive exhausted.” (The Art of War, Weak Points and Strong, No. 1)
“The spot where we intend to fight must not be made known; for then the enemy will have to prepare against a possible attack at several different points.” (The Art of War, Weak Points and Strong, No. 16)
“Rouse him, and learn the principle of his activity or inactivity.” (The Art of War, Weak Points and Strong, No. 23)
As I think about friendship—true friendship and crocodile friendship alike, and about the people I count as enemies in my own life, I have come to realize that I have three categories of people in my life, with little in the way of a middle ground between them:
True and genuine friends
Future friends whom I have not yet met
Enemies, either public or secret
My true and genuine friends know who they are with absolute certainty. Even future friends I have not yet met likely know who they are because of our shared nature as kindred spirits in search of each other. But if you are reading this and you’re not certain which category you fall into, then you are probably an enemy.
The only question remaining is whether to follow Nietzsche’s advice to embrace enmity cut from one block in the light of day or to follow Sun Tzu’s advice to secretly wage war while lulling enemies into confidence with flattery and deception. Only a fool, however, would be naive enough to believe that all enmity can be avoided in this earthly life or that all who proclaim friendship do so in good faith. Regardless of which approach you choose to take with your own enemies, however, at least give your true enemies credit for being worthy adversaries cut from the same block, even if you secretly plot against them as they also plot against you.
For Further Reading:
The Gay Science by Friedrich Nietzsche
The Art of War by Sun Tzu
