“He who cannot obey himself will be commanded.” — Friedrich NietzscheNietzsche is not praising blind obedience. He is pointing to a practical truth about freedom. If you cannot follow your own principles, your own plan, your own values, you will end up following someone else’s. The “commander” may be a boss, a trend, a craving, a fear, or the loudest voice in the room. Either way, the outcome is the same. A life steered from the outside.What does it mean to “obey yourself”?Self-obedience is not self-punishment. It is self-governance. It means deciding what matters, then doing what that decision requires, even when motivation drops. It is the ability to act from intention rather than impulse. In modern language, Nietzsche is talking about self-discipline and personal responsibility.This matters because the mind is not a single, unified captain. It is a crowd. One part wants long-term growth. Another wants comfort now. When the “crowd” wins, you do not become free. You become predictable. And predictable people are easy to direct, by advertising, peer pressure, workplace politics, or digital distraction.How we get “commanded” without noticingMost control today does not look like control. It looks like convenience. A feed decides what you see next.… Read MoreYourStory RSS Feed
