Nietzsche and the Common Good

Studying philosophy is a bit difficult for me at times, because I am a very empathetic person and I get upset when thousands of people develop whole systems of thought specifically to undermine those things which I hold to most dearly. For this reason, I read Nietzsche only occasionally and only in small doses. I mean, for one thing, he's so damn insightful and bitterly truthful it's almost unbearable. One of the main reasons Nietzsche hates both ancient philosophy (like Plato) and Christianity is that they teach people to believe in the "real world," the world which "exists" outside this world and of which this world is an imitation or a poor reflection. Nietzsche hates this idea of a "real world" because it teaches people to not value this world and hence keeps people from striving for excellence. The "real world" destroys the real world. We of course all know people like this: people who have withdrawn from the world out of shame or pride, who despair of having an influence in the world and who turn their eyes away. The "real world" exists for them as a palliative to soothe their dissatisfaction with this world. Somewhere there is justice, somewhere good is triumphant, and so on. But in my experience, these people are far outnumbered by self-absorbed, egoistic, destructive, life-hating rejecters of the "real world." So many people, lacking faith in something beyond this world, become concerned with "getting mine," with "looking out for number one," and hence have no care for real life, for anything beyond themselves. Some of these people have been hurt or somehow soured by the sadness of the real world, but lacking anything which could give this hurt meaning, they become embittered and turn against the world, and staking out a small section of the world in which they can dominate, they give no thought to the influence of their actions on others, both in their own time and in times to come. How many times have you heard people say, "It's not my problem?" Poor Chinamen are being worked in atrocious, practically slavish conditions making cell phone chargers and designer purses for the middle class. But it's not my problem. What, I mean really, what exactly can I do about it anyway? Life sucks. Get over it. Strip malls are built to last 10 years at best. In three years what looks nice and clean now will be dirty and ugly. Not my problem. I'm making money now, and in three years, I'll have sold my wine store and be moving on. It'll be the next guys job to make it beautiful. I'm getting mine now while the gettings good. The only thing, in my experience, which keeps people in any way concerned with this world in a real way, with doing good here and now to the best of our ability, is a belief in a "real world" where our actions in this world will be measured against the standards of the "real world." Quite the opposite of what Nietzsche says, belief in the "real world" does not cause us to hate the real world, but to love it, and hence to both sorrow for its scars and to work for its healing and growth. For God so loved the world ...