Quote Originally Posted by TheOriginalGrumpySpy View Post
Well there is that, yes, but more fundamentally... Manifest Destiny is widely seen as a "God-given" right. It's the divine allocation of the west to the WASPs (if you will, as much as I hate that term). Manifest Destiny is the belief in the "right" to something, not entirely as opposed to the more "this is as it was."
This still captures the essence of it. Nietzsche says "All happens as it should" and Manifest Destiny is "If I can do it, God wanted me to" implying that "All that happens happens because God wanted it to (ergo it should)".

Quote Originally Posted by TheOriginalGrumpySpy
Perhaps, but I don't believe so. Where eternal return is more akin to the Cylon belief that "All of this has happened before, and will happen again." Nietzsche's fatalism is more a construct from ""All of this has happened as it should." In fact, in the passage specifically quoted in the Amor fati page, there shouldn't be any sense optimism or pessimism because to do so would, in effect, negate the very idea he is trying to form.
I think simonj is commenting on the fact that the neutrality this point espouses is loads cheerier than most of Nietzsche's writing. Regardless, it's still incredibly bleak.