Affirmations of Life – How to be Great

 

 

The following is a transcript of this video.

 

“It’s easy to be a naive idealist. It’s easy to be a cynical realist. It’s quite another thing to have no illusions and still hold the inner flame.”

Marie-Louise von Franz

To be a philosophical pessimist is to be acutely aware of the tragic side of life and to believe that suffering overshadows joy, that evil can defeat good, that we are victims of fate and chance, and that death always lurks. Many consider philosophical pessimism to be a depressing and life-denying outlook that reflects an inability, or refusal, to acknowledge the positive aspects of life. But according to the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, there is a variant of philosophical pessimism that reflects the most life-affirming state that one can achieve. Nietzsche called this a pessimism of strength, and in this video, we explore the nature of this pessimism and explain its relation to personal greatness. In his autobiography Ecce Homo, Nietzsche wrote:

“Is pessimism necessarily a sign of decline, decay, malformation, of tired and debilitated instincts—as was the case among the Indians and appears to be the case amongst us ‘modern men’ and Europeans? Is there a pessimism of strength? Is there an intellectual predilection for the hard, gruesome, evil, problematic aspect of existence, prompted by well-being, by overflowing health, by the fullness of existence? Is it perhaps possible to suffer precisely from overfullness?”

Friedrich Nietzsche, Ecce Homo

In this passage, written in 1886, Nietzsche critically revisits his first book, The Birth of Tragedy, which he wrote 14 years prior. One of Nietzsche’s aims in The Birth of Tragedy was to provide philosophical consolation to those who possess Dionysian wisdom. Dionysus was the Ancient Greek god of suffering and tragedy, and Dionysian wisdom consists of an acute awareness of the darker realities of the human condition, such as suffering, meaninglessness, absurdity, tragedy, and death. Or as Nietzsche explains in The Birth of Tragedy:

“…those who have achieved ‘Dionysian wisdom’…have looked truly into the essence of things, they have gained knowledge…Conscious of the truth he has once seen, man now sees everywhere only the horror or absurdity of existence…now he comes to know the wisdom of the sylvan god, Silenus: it nauseates him.”

Friedrich Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy

The god Silenus was a companion and tutor of Dionysus. The wisdom of Silenus, which often accompanies Dionysian wisdom, is that it would be better to have never been born at all. In The Birth of Tragedy, Nietzsche conveys this idea in Silenus’s words:

“Oh, miserable ephemeral race, children of chance and suffering, why do you compel me to say to you what would be most beneficial for you not to hear? What is best of all is utterly unreachable: not to be born, not to be, to be nothing. But the second best for you is – to die soon.”

Friedrich Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy

Dionysian wisdom, and the wisdom of Silenus, represent a profound form of pessimism that can be anti-life and antithetical to well-being. In gazing into the proverbial abyss of existence and seeing horror and absurdity, one can develop a deep disdain of life which metastasizes into a self-hatred or even a hatred of humanity. The wisdom of Silenus can lead to one to accept antinatalism, which is the view that it is better not to be than to be and so bringing children into this world is unethical. This pessimistic wisdom can also serve as a precursor to passive nihilism or the conviction that if life fundamentally tragic and meaningless, there is no point in doing anything at all. Or as Nietzsche wrote:

“…insight into the terrible truth outweighs every motive for action.”

Friedrich Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy

In The Birth of Tragedy, Nietzsche offers a remedy for those troubled by pessimistic wisdom. This remedy involves shielding ourselves from the terrible truths of the human condition by living as much as possible within the beautiful illusions provided by art. Or as the philosopher Christopher Janaway writes:

“…for Nietzsche art is the production of beauty that deceives, and truth is not only ugly, but so ugly that we could not live without obliterating it by falsifications of some kind.”

Christopher Janaway, Essays on Schopenhauer and Nietzsche

While Dionysian wisdom pierces into the depths of existence and finds it absurd and horrifying, art transforms life into what Nietzsche called an “aesthetic phenomenon”. Art selects and strengthens what is beautiful, it hides or corrects what is ugly, and in this way the terrible truths of life are, in the words of Nietzsche, “at least veiled and withdrawn from sight.” Or as Nietzsche put it, art is ‘a redeeming, healing enchantress. She alone can turn these nauseous thoughts at the horror or absurdity of existence into ideas compatible with life.” The idea that art offers us consoling illusions that can help us endure life led Nietzsche to state that: “Without music life would be a mistake.” Or as Nietzsche wrote:

“Truth is ugly: we possess art lest we perish of the truth…Art, in which precisely the lie hallows itself, in which the will to deception has good conscience on its side.”

Friedrich Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy

Nietzsche never entirely abandoned the idea that art can serve as an antidote to Dionysian wisdom, yet later in life he grew increasingly dissatisfied with this remedy. One of art’s limitations is that it is impossible to remain perpetually enveloped in beauty as reality continually pierces artistic illusions. Furthermore, there are moments in life when the weight of evil, suffering, or absurdity are so heavy that the illusions of art offer little to no consolation. The beauty of art, therefore, can only help us endure life, or as Nietzsche put it:

“As an aesthetic phenomenon existence is still bearable to us…”

Friedrich Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy

Many of us, however, want to do more than just endure life – we want to embrace, affirm, and love it. But it is impossible to truly love life if we need to be shielded from its darker aspects. To develop a truly life-affirming attitude, we need the capacity to love not only that which is beautiful and good, but the terrible and ugly. This capacity forms the essence of what Nietzsche called a pessimism of strength. Or as he wrote in The Will to Power.

“Let us dwell a moment on this symptom of highest culture—I call it the pessimism of strength. Man no longer needs a “justification of ills”; “justification” is precisely what he abhors: he enjoys ills; he finds senseless ills the most interesting. If he formerly had need of a god, he now takes delight in a world disorder without God, a world of chance, to whose essence belong the terrible, the ambiguous, the seductive…This pessimism of strength ends… in an absolute affirmation of the world.”

Friedrich Nietzsche, The Will to Power

Few possess the capacity for a pessimism of strength. Most people are cowards in the face of the darker realities of life and if they focus on these realities for too long they succumb to despair. A myriad of defense mechanisms, therefore, shield most people from an awareness of suffering, evil, and death. Only those who are strong, resilient, and overflowing with vitality have the power to face the horror or absurdity of existence and affirm it. “Into all abysses I carry the blessings of my saying Yes.” (Friedrich Nietzsche, Ecce Homo). To understand how to cultivate a character capable of a pessimism of strength, we must explore Nietzsche’s insights on how to cultivate greatness.

“My formula for greatness in a human being is…that one wants nothing to be different…Not merely bear what is necessary, still less conceal it…but love it.”

Nietzsche, The Gay Science

For Nietzsche the human being is not a unified, singular self, but a complex amalgamation of competing drives. Drives are fundamental forces that guide our behavior, desires, and thought patterns. On one level, drives are primitive instincts such as the drive to survive and the sexual drive. Drives also manifest as deeper psychological and existential motivations. The will to power, for example, is a drive toward growth, mastery, and influence over oneself and other people. The drive for curiosity propels us to seek knowledge and explore the unknown, while the artistic drive inspires creativity and the pursuit of beauty. We also possess drives to engage in particular activities; such as a drive to exercise, to philosophize, to socialize, or to spend time in solitude. For Nietzsche, what determines the greatness of a human being is the number and strength of the drives that constitute his being. The more powerful and numerous one’s drives, the greater the self. While an individual who possesses feeble drives, or only one or two strong drives, does not satisfy Nietzsche’s criteria for greatness. Or as the philosopher Christopher Janaway explains:

“Considering individual drives on the axis weak – strong, Nietzsche regards the presence of strong drives as characteristic of the greatest or healthiest type of human individual…The more numerous the drives that can be sustained in one individual, the greater that individual will be. This helps to rule out some examples that it would be rather ridiculous to consider paradigms of human greatness. For instance, someone who has a strong, even domineering drive towards collecting stamps, together with a few more mundane drives, say, to sleep and to eat, is an over-simplified individual who does not approach Nietzschean greatness, however fervent and dominant his chief drive may be. And even someone whose only strong drive was to philosophize or to compose music would not satisfy this model of plenitude.”

Christopher Janaway, Essays on Schopenhauer and Nietzsche

To satisfy Nietzsche’s conditions for greatness, we must increase the number and strength of our drives. One of the most effective ways to do this is to practice an unrestrained self-acceptance that involves embracing all our drives, even those that clash with contemporary moral standards.

For example, in our age the drive for power is demonized. This is partly because modern morality has been deeply shaped by weak individuals who lack power and the belief they can attain it. Additionally, many fail to understand that power, which is the capacity to influence oneself, the environment and other people, is a fundamental human need. The drive to dominate is another drive that society demonizes. But in its healthy manifestations this drive is simply the desire to excel and surpass others and is critical in the pursuit of excellence, be it in sport, business, or creative endeavors. Accepting and therein strengthening drives that clash with modern standards is not an endorsement of cruelty or oppression but a recognition that such drives form an important part of the economy of drives that constitute a strong and powerful character.

“Terribleness is part of greatness: let us not deceive ourselves.”

Friedrich Nietzsche, The Will to Power

Along with strengthening drives that are morally questionable, the cultivation of greatness also requires we cultivate drives that oppose and conflict with one another. Along with the drive for power and the drive to dominate, we should strengthen our drives for goodwill, cooperation, and justice. If we have a strong drive for solitude, we should strengthen our drive to socialize. We should oppose a strong sexual drive with a strong drive for self-control. For the great individual, according to Nietzsche, is composed of strong conflicting drives, an idea which was shared by the great American writer John Steinbeck. For as Steinbeck wrote regarding one of his characters in East of Eden:

“Tom’s cowardice was as huge as his courage, as it must be in great men. His violence balanced his tender­ness, and himself was a pitted battlefield of his own forces.”

John Steinbeck, East of Eden

The struggle between powerful conflicting forces generates an inner tension or friction in the soul that produces an overwhelming fount of energy. This energy naturally seeks to discharge itself through extraordinary deeds, ambitious ventures, and creative achievements.

“It is the pull of opposite poles that stretches souls. And only stretched souls make music.”

Eric Hoffer, The Passionate State of Mind

Or as Nietzsche explained in the Will to Power:

“It is my conviction that the presence of internal conflicts and the feelings they engender gives rise to the bow with the great tension, the great man.

Friedrich Nietzsche, The Will to Power

The final step in the cultivation of greatness is to bring all the drives of our being into a higher-order unity. As this unity consists of a harmonious integration of conflicting drives it is a unity of opposites which the Ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus wrote about in his fragments.

“What is in opposition is in agreement, and the most beautiful harmony comes out of things in conflict (and all happens according to strife).”

Heraclitus, Fragments

Or as Nietzsche wrote in Beyond Good and Evil:

“Only this should be called greatness: the ability to be just as multiple as whole, just as wide as full.”

Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil

To harmonize our conflicting drives, we must impose upon ourselves a compelling, overarching goal, which Nietzsche called an “organizing idea” that gives our life purpose and direction. When this goal is deeply rooted within us it acts like a guiding star whose strong gravitational force pulls all our drives into its orbit. Or as Nietzsche put it, “the coming together of many drives in one nature”, is found in human beings “in whom everything – knowledge, desire, loving, hating – strives centripetally toward a root force, and where a harmonious system of drives is formed by the compelling domination of [an organizing idea which functions as] the living centre of the self.” (Friedrich Nietzsche, Schopenhauer as Educator)

Nietzsche referred to those who embody these conditions of greatness as “the rare cases of powerfulness in soul and body, the strokes of luck among humans.” (Friedrich Nietzsche, On the Genealogy of Morality) With strong opposing drives unified by a powerful purpose, these individuals radiate vitality and strength. They are brimming with energy, teeming with projects and ambitions to channel their energy, and so well-disposed to themselves and to existence that they are capable of a pessimism of strength. According to Nietzsche, these individuals can “Say Yes to life in its strangest and hardest problems.” (Friedrich Nietzsche, Ecce Homo) Or as he continues:

“He that is richest in the fullness of life…cannot only afford the sight of the terrible and questionable but even the terrible deed and any luxury of destruction, decomposition, and negation. In his case, what is evil, absurd, and ugly seems, as it were, permissible, owing to an excess of procreating, fertilizing energies that can still turn any desert into lush farmland.”

Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science

Along with being the prerogative of great individuals, a pessimism of strength reflects a realistic way to view existence as it takes into account both the light and the dark sides of the human condition. Optimism, in contrast, is often driven by a need to distort reality.  Many optimists are heavily dependent on defense mechanisms to keep the terrible truths of life outside of awareness, and they mistake their denial for positivity. But when tragedy, evil, or deep suffering strikes, their fragile optimism crumbles and gives way to a life-denying pessimism that always lurked beneath the surface. A pessimism of strength, therefore, represents a more affirmative state of being than optimism as the pessimist of strength is able to face reality without illusions and say Yes to it all.

“I want to learn more and more to see as beautiful what is necessary in things; then I shall be one of those who make things beautiful.”

Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science

Or as John Steinbeck echoed:

“There’s more beauty in the truth even if it is dreadful beauty. The storytellers at the city gate twist life so that it looks sweet to the lazy and the stupid and the weak, and this only strengthens their infirmities and teaches nothing, cures nothing, nor does it let the heart soar.”

John Steinbeck, East of Eden