Lionel Blue and Nietzsche

[UncleEbenezer]

Since the announcement of the death of Lionel Blue , the BBC have been broadcasting quite a lot of and about him. Blue was a Rabbi, thinking man, author, broadcaster, and not least possessed of a fine sense of humour. Hitherto one of the few voices of religion on the BBC that don't have me reaching for the Off switch.

Topping - or at least high on - the list of nuggets of wisdom from the great man featured in the past few days, has been his commentary on Love thy neighbour as thyself. He points out that that would be very harsh, given how much harder it is to forgive oneself one's own misdeeds than to forgive or set at nothing someone else's quickly-forgotten transgressions. Well, that's straight from Also Sprach Zarathustra, where one of the most famous aphorisms is (paraphrasing from very old memory) to love your neighbour as yourself, first learn to love yourself.